The Winston Machine

At the height of the Blitz, Charlotte is in a passionate affair with a Spitfire pilot, fighting fascism in red lipstick and living each day like her last.

Eighty years later, her granddaughter Becky is stuck in her hometown, cooking dinners for her dad and singing old songs at other people’s weddings, dreaming of a better time.

The 1940s are more real to Becky than her life, but when a friend moves back to town, she’s forced to face the present. What happens when there’s no war left to fight?

★★★★ “a typically probing and playful work from Kandinsky…shot through with music and mischief” Guardian

★★★★ “intriguing, fascinating” Whatsonstage

★★★★ “a slick, insightful and often very funny exploration of the distorting power of unexamined nostalgia” The Stage

★★★★★ “Unmissable! Exceptional & innovative” Everything Theatre

★★★★★ “We didn’t want it to end!” North West End

The Winston Machine tour dates:

2022 – New Diorama Theatre; North Wall Oxford

2023 – Dartington Arts; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough;  Theatre by the Lake, Keswick; Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; Bristol Old Vic; Unity Theatre Liverpool; Dugdale Arts Centre, Enfield.

The Winston Machine was commissioned and co-produced by New Diorama Theatre, and is additionally supported by the Boris Karloff Foundation, the Thistle Trust, the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The 2023 tour was co-produced by Dartington Arts and  supported by the Thistle Trust, Complicité, New Diorama Theatre, Old Diorama Arts Centre and Theatre Arts at London Metropolitan University, with thanks to the National Theatre.

A wraparound engagement programme for the local community in Camden and neighbouring boroughs is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.