the end of history

‘No talent at all when it comes to cooking - as you will discover - but when it comes to pissing off my children - immense talent - Olympian talent.’

Newbury, 1997. Sal is attempting to cook dinner for the family. She and husband David have pulled off a coup and gathered their brood back home for the weekend. Eldest son Carl is bringing his new girlfriend to meet everyone for the first time; middle daughter Polly is back from Cambridge University for the occasion; and youngest Tom will hopefully make it out of detention in time for dinner.

Sal and David would rather feed their kids with leftist ideals and welfarism than fancy cuisine. When you’ve named each of your offspring after your socialist heroes, you’ve given them a lot to live up to…

Jack Thorne’s play the end of history… premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2019, in a production directed by John Tiffany.

‘Thorne has a gift for dialogue… a sophisticated unhappy families sitcom’
- The Times

‘Clever and highly intriguing… has a clever, accelerated Posy Simmonds-meets-Ionesco air, and throughout is a devastating verbal spree… a piercing look at the liabilities (and benefits) of being the offspring of political idealists… both satire and celebration’
- Independent

‘A tender, bracing and beautiful portrait of family life… Thorne’s compassionate, deeply textured study of this family has a lovely inner life that pulses with themes of curdling parental embarrassment, mental crisis, love, loss and legacy… a seriously good, warm-hearted play’
- London Theatre

‘Absorbing… Thorne is a writer of immense emotional intelligence and his dialogue regularly devastates’
- The Stage