Pandemonium is a wild account of our great leaders grappling with the Pandemic and then with each other. A caustic entertainment for the winter months, it relates the Johnson-Truss-Sunak years in all their glory. Re-live the horror. The Mess. The Murk. The Lying about the Lies.

'Jingle while you mingle. It’s one big party. Bring a suitcase.'

Armando Iannucci says: “I wanted to write something furious and energetic about the past three years. Pandemonium is partly about us wanting those in charge to be up to the job, to be heroes, and the anger that started building when the news of the drinks parties began to emerge.  And yes, I wanted to write something funny (don’t forget, we also had Liz Truss!). Laughter is a great release, and my aim is for the audience to have a good time and a good laugh, but I also hope it helps people process the tumultuous and crazy time we went through.”

 Wayward Productions in association with Soho Theatre bring Pandemonium to the stage from 1 December 2023.

Armando Iannucci is a political commentator, writer and director. His screenplay for the film In The Loop was Oscar nominated and his iconic series for the BBC, The Thick of It, was nominated for 13 BAFTA Awards, winning five. His series Veep picked up four Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. He is the co- creator of the Steve Coogan character Alan Partridge. Armando wrote and directed the films The Death of Stalin, which was nominated for two BAFTAs and winner of Best Comedy at the European Film Awards, and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) which was nominated for a Golden Globe.  He created HBO’s Avenue 5, the second season which aired in 2020.

Pandemonium is his first piece written for the theatre. He is currently working on an adaptation of Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove for 2024. More about that here.

PATRICK MARBER (DIRECTOR)

Patrick Marber is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. His work has won Evening Standard, Olivier, Time Out, New York and London Critics’ Circle and Writers’ Guild Awards and received BAFTA, British Comedy and Royal Television Society Awards. Most recently he won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (London/Broadway).

His screenplays have been nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Awards. He received the British Independent Film Award for Notes on a Scandal. His second play, Closer, has been produced in more than 200 cities across the world.

Other plays include Dealer’s Choice, Howard Katz, The Red Lion, Three Days in the Country, The Musician, The School Film, After Miss Julie, Don Juan in Soho. Stage adaptations include versions of Hedda Gabler, Exit The King and The Beaux’ Stratagem (National Theatre) and Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (Donmar). Screenplays include: Closer, Notes on a Scandal, Old Street,  Love You More.

As a director his productions include Dealer’s Choice (NT/Vaudeville); After Miss Julie (BBC); Closer (NT/Lyric/Music Box NY); ‘1953’ (Almeida); The Old Neighbourhood (Royal Court); The Caretaker (Comedy); Travesties (Menier/Apollo/Broadway) Don Juan in Soho (Wyndhams); Venus in Fur (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Blue Remembered Hills, Howard Katz, Three Days in the Country and Exit The King (National Theatre).

Patrick is the co-creator with Peter Curran of Bunk Bed (BBC Radio 4).