We The People

A flash banner.

by Eric Schlosser

  • Director: Charlotte Westenra
  • Designer: Paul Wills
    Composer: *Adrian Lee
    Assistant Director: *Henry Bell

It is 1787 and the frail government of the recently independent United States of America, menaced by the powers of old Europe and reeling from internal rebellion, is suffering a crisis of identity. What sort of country should America be? Who should govern it? Who belongs in it? Throughout a long, humid, Philadelphia summer, a group of able and passionate men force themselves into one room to argue out the guiding principles of the new nation. What they came up with proves to be one of the most important – and radical – democratic experiments of the last 250 years.

We The People forges a vivid drama out of the surviving speeches, letters and official documents from that historic moment. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, George Washington and many of the other founding fathers, came together at a moment of crisis and created the constitution which the United States still lives within today. We The People, is a recreation of what they did.

Eric Schlosser is one of America's most exciting historians whose books have been international bestsellers – they include Reefer Madness and Fast Food Nation.

Charlotte Westenra directed Gladiator Games (Sheffield and Stratford East) and is now directing Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Donmar Warehouse).

Paul Wills recent work includes The Cut (Donmar).

Cast
Randolph: Benjamin Askew
Franklin: John Bett
Madison: Robert Bowman
Matlack / Gerry: Joe Caffrey
Marcus: Juldeh Camara
Patterson: Ramon Camin
Mary King: Seroca Davis
Mason: Christopher Godwin
Morris: Trystan Gravelle
Jackson / Jones: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Sally Bauche: Cush Jumbo
Hamilton: William Mannering
Pinckney / Bedford: David Oakes
Sarah: Rhiannon Oliver
Shays / Wilson: Paul Rider
Washington: John Stahl
Eliza Trist: Michelle Terry
Sheppard / Sherman: Andrew Vincent
Rutledge: Thomas Wheatley

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