TOM GOODMAN-HILL and JOANNA SCANLAN lead a reading of Peter Juke’s Trojan Horses – The story of the first great information war.
This June sees the debut reading of Trojan Horses, Peter Jukes’ experimental epic new play, which examines the hidden forces behind some of the defining events of our time.
Taking place at The Cockpit, in London, on Tuesday 23 June, this one-off event unites Emmy and Olivier-nominated talents, a BAFTA-winner, and one of Britain’s leading investigative journalists to read this powerful and important new play – described by legendary British actor and campaigner Hugh Grant as “Brilliant, terrifying and true.”
Directed by renowned theatre-maker Stephen Unwin, Trojan Horses epically and poetically tells the story of “the first great information war” – a decade-long conflict fought not only through military power but disinformation, social media, data harvesting and psychological manipulation.
Spanning Brexit, Donald Trump, Cambridge Analytica, and the conflict in Ukraine, the play reveals how battles for territory became a battle for control of reality itself.
Leading the cast for this reading is Tom Goodman-Hill. The Emmy and Olivier-nominated star of Baby Reindeer, Two Weeks in August, Humans and Mr Selfridge will read “Putin’s Grey Cardinal” Vladislav Surkov, Donald Trump and Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix. BAFTA-winning actress Joanna Scanlan, acclaimed for her work in After Love, The Thick of It and Riot Women, will read Boris Johnson among other powerfully symbolic voices.
Meanwhile, Tony-nominated Finbar Lynch, star of Hedda, Child 44 and Suffragette, reads Alexander Dugin, Jeffrey Epstein and Nigel Farage. Mark Quartley, known for his inventive stage work with the RSC, takes on Steve Bannon, Arron Banks, and internet strategist Konstantin Rykov.
Hardeep Matharu, journalist, broadcaster and commentator, follows her performance in a recent revival of Destiny with key roles including Sofia, Priya and one of the play’s principal narrators.
Written by award-winning playwright, author and investigative journalist Peter Jukes, Trojan Horses combines documentary research with dramatic storytelling to chart a world transformed by information warfare. Moving between Moscow, Washington, Westminster and Kyiv, the play asks how democracies became vulnerable to manipulation, how digital technology reshaped politics, and why the struggle for truth has become a defining battle of the twenty-first century.
At a moment when artificial intelligence, algorithmic influence, political polarisation and disinformation dominate public debate, Trojan Horses offers a uniquely theatrical examination of the forces shaping global events. Commenting on the script, author the best-selling Fake History, Otto English says: “Peter takes a real-life story of steaming corruption and indifference, and twists it into an epic Greek tragi-comedy. By turns poetic, infuriating and unmissable.”
This rehearsed reading marks the beginning of the next stage of development for a major new theatrical work with national and international ambitions.
