Sarah Helm's LOYALTY Debuts at Hampstead Theatre, July 20

LOYALTY is the debut play from writer and journalist Sarah Helm, opponent of the war and wife of Tony Blair's then Chief of Staff, JoNathan Powell. Drawing from her own experience, she has written a uniquely informed fictionalised memoir of what it was like to share a husband with the Prime Minister at key moments in the crisis. The roduction will run July 20 through August 13.

Edward Hall directs Maxine Peake who makes a much anticipated return to the London stage after BBC's Silk, Confessions of a Diary Secretary, See No Evil: The Moors Murders and Channel 4's Shameless.

In the weeks leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the pressure on the UK government to commit to joining the American cause was escalating. And in one Stockwell household the pressure had completely erased the line between the political and the personal - the home of Laura Beeching and her husband Nick... Tony Blair's Chief of Staff.

With the crisis coming to a head, the Beechings struggle to protect their relationship as Nick attempts to guide Tony Blair through one of the greatest controversies of our time.

For tickets, visit: http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com