Memorable British musicals in recent years have tackled difficult, challenging and dark subjects including serial murder and trial by TV. Next up: what if Katie Hopkins was murdered?
The Assassination of Katie Hopkins is a provocatively titled musical scheduled to open in spring next year which uses her fictional death as a way to explore wider issues of “truth, celebrity and public outrage”.
The rightwing Mail Online columnist divides opinion like few others. She is detested or loved. The show’s co-writer, Chris Bush, said she hoped the production would challenge audiences’ preconceptions about Hopkins.
“She is someone who generates very, very strong opinions, positively or negatively, and what interests me as a writer is challenging assumptions.”
Hopkins will not be a visible character on stage but her death is the trigger for the narrative and her presence looms large over events.
“We have been going back and forth on whether we mind if she hates it,” said Bush. “But is it worse if she loves it?”
Bush has written the words while Matt Winkworth has composed the music.
It will receive its world premiere at Theatr Clwyd in north Wales next April, directed by James Grieve, artistic director of touring theatre company Paines Plough.
While fictional, the work will be presented as if it is a piece of verbatim theatre.
Bush said it would examine social media, the mob mentality it encourages and the limits of free speech. “Does having the right to a voice give you a right to a platform?”
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