The Winding Stair
By Jesse Norman
Directed by Adam Nichols
Power is shifting. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, James waiting to become King. Everywhere, there is opportunity to ascend.
But who will thrive, and who will fail, under the new King? Will it be the scholar Francis Bacon, whose brilliant mind is the envy of the royal court? Or his hated rival the attorney Edward Coke, already acclaimed as the greatest lawyer of his generation?
The Winding Stair tells the gripping story of these two founders of our modern world and their battle for power, pre-eminence – and the hand of the most eligible woman in the realm.
Combining humour, wit and vivid imagination, The Winding Stair is an epic tale of jealousy and intrigue in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, which – in its lowest moments – holds a darkened mirror to our own contemporary politics.
Adapted by Jesse Norman from his bestselling novel – winner of the 2023 Parliamentary Book Awards, New Statesman Book of the Year and Sunday Times Book of the Week.
These special previews, ahead of the show’s premiere in November 2026, will be presented as a promenade performance between the Roman Theatre and Bacon’s memorial in the chancel of St Michael’s Church. Due to the forecast hot temperatures the production will begin at the Roman Theatre before performing in its entirety in the shaded churchyard of St Michael’s Church.
ABOUT JESSE NORMAN
Among other things, Jesse Norman has taught philosophy, run a medical education project in communist Eastern Europe, and worked on a magic bus going to Kathmandu the long way. He is presently the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, and the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. As well as The Winding Stair, Jesse has written biographies of Edwin Burke and Adam Smith. This is his first play.
Rehearsal photos: credit Mili Branston
