Former Secretary of State and broadcaster Michael Portillo brings his life stories to the stage in a live show.
Michael Portillo is coming to the New Theatre Oxford on Thursday 29 October, bringing his life stories to the stage in a live show he calls A Life of Two Halves. It's a long title for a long career, and the two halves it refers to are pretty distinct: the first as a politician, the second as a broadcaster. He'll be telling stories from both, and the range is wide enough to cover a lot of ground in one evening.
On the political side, he'll be talking about his time serving under Margaret Thatcher, running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and losing his seat in one of the most famous moments in British political history. He also touches on his father's experiences of the Spanish Civil War and his escape to England, and his observations of Thatcher herself and the decay of political power. It's the kind of inside view you don't usually get from someone who was actually in the room.
Then there's the second half: his transition into television, sparring with Diane Abbott and Andrew Neil, and the railway journeys he's taken across Spain, the USA, India and beyond. If you've followed his work on the screen, this is the live version of that, with the stories told directly to the audience rather than through a camera lens.
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The show runs for around two hours with an interval, and it's recommended for ages 14 and over. It starts at 7.30pm and finishes around 9.30pm, so you'll be out by half ten. Tickets are between £34.99 and £67.99, depending on where you sit in the New Theatre Oxford on George Street.
