A PLAY focussing on one of Britain's most controversial politicians of modern times, Enoch Powell, is to be part of a strongly political new season at one of the nation's top theatres.

The new season for the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, in the second year under director and playwright David Greig, will feature What Shadows, by Chris Hannan, in which Powell will be portrayed by the noted Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid.

The play, first performed in Birmingham last year, tells the story of Powell's infamous 'rivers of blood' speech in Birmingham in 1968, and its legacy.

In his 1968 speech Powell, who was subsequently sacked from his post as Shadow Defence Secretary, criticised immigration policy and said: 'Like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'."

McDiarmid, perhaps best known for depicting the Emperor in the Star Wars films, will be marking a significant return to the Lyceum stage - he last performed at the theatre in a Brecht play directed by Sir Richard Eyre in 1972.

It is directed by Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert.

She said: "As we near the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s explosive ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, I’m excited to be working once again with the brilliant Ian McDiarmid for Chris Hannan’s What Shadows.

"Chris’s powerful play is a scorching interrogation of how a divided nation can learn to speak across the divide."

Greig, unveiling the programme, said that the historic events of the past have resonance today in what he said is a "discombobulated world."

Greig also pointed out that this season also sees more productions written and directed by women than men, and will include two "lost classics" by women which will be experiencing their major UK revivals.

These include The Belle's Stratagem by Hannah Cowley and Cockpit, by Bridget Boland, from 1948, which will use the entire auditorium of the theatre.

Of What Shadows, Greig said: "The moment I knew we were going in this direction I knew I wanted it to open the season because, when I was growing up Powell was - never mind the bogey man - he was a comedy figure, he was so clearly the embodiment of a Britain that was gone, in the past.

"I would say it remained that way, and I don't think I spotted it in UKIP [UK Independence Party] but kudos to [playwright] Chris Hannan, who spotted it, and he was plugged in.

"The discourse of the day is now Powellite - we are talking about immigration, we are talking about Europe, talking about Empire, a sense of Britain that is 'Christian', these are all Powellite.

"If Powell was alive and young now, he would be in the Cabinet.

"With Ian McDiarmid you have an extraordinary turn by an extraordinary actor but also a play that says 'come on, what do we think about this?'

"It's not propaganda for either side, but it is certainly not a hagiography."

Other significant plays in the season include Wind Resistance by Karine Polwart, and three world premieres, a new version of Arabian Nights for the Christmas period, The Lover by Marguerite Duras adapted by Fleur Darkin and Jemima Levick, and Love Song to Lavender Menace by James Ley.

Greig said: "This season was born the morning after the European Referendum, and I had like many people I had stayed up all night, and been taken completely by surprise by the result.

"I was walking into work and I was disorientated, emotionally discombobulated and I had a very profound feeling that I don't quite know where I live anymore: my understanding had been shoogled very badly.

"But I was walking into a theatre that I run, so I had this feeling that I had a need to have a chance to gather with people, and talk, and directly go towards that encounter - the need for a public sphere in that moment felt very profound and very personal.

"I had a strong feeling that we had to go towards politics, that we had to go towards the issues."

Greig added: "This is a time of political turmoil and civic upheaval.

"All around us we see fraught binaries: Britain and Europe, England and Scotland, Yes and No, Left and Right, Men and Women… in these times more than ever we seek refuge in the theatre: an engine empathy and play, a forum of understanding and ideas, a place where, through the prism of a great story, we can discover ourselves anew."