A Fine Idea

Arcola Theatre June 10 - July 4 2026

A Fine Idea

by Christine Bacon

Directed by Charlotte Westenra

Arcola Theatre June 10 – July 4 2026

“You have a speech in need of an idea and I have an idea in need of a speech.”

1949: President Truman is lacking a zinger for his inaugural address. Jo’s grandfather pitches something new, something utopian, something to keep the Soviets from centre stage – ‘international development’.

2026: The world is on fire and Jo is lost. After a career spent circling the globe delivering aid to the needy – a good person doing good things – something’s not sitting right. Because nothing seems to change.
Today, with global inequality at record extremes, A FINE IDEA takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey behind the curtain and into history; from plunder through revolution, to the heart of the question: Do we really want to help?

A Fine Idea is a theatrical response to Jason Hickel’s book about global inequality The Divide