A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine is a 2009 biographical

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

 play by the English playwright Trevor Griffiths

Trevor Griffiths

Trevor Griffiths is an English dramatist.Raised as a Roman Catholic, he attended Saint Bede's College, before being accepted into Manchester University in 1952 to read English...

 on the life of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...

. Other characters in it include Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...

 (who appears both as the historical figure and as a narrator), George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

, Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

, John Adams

John Adams

John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

 and Georges Danton

Georges Danton

Georges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...

. Its first half tells of Paine's involvement in the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 and its second half of his involvement in the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, ending with his funeral.

The play began life as a two-part screenplay for Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

 http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/docs/A%20New%20World%20press%20release.pdf; though never filmed, it was published in 2004 as These Are The Times

These Are the Times

These Are the Times is the second single released from Dru Hill's second album, Enter the Dru. The single reached number 21 on the Hot 100 and number 5 on the R&B charts and stayed on the chart for 21 weeks.. The music video was inspired by the film,The Man in the Iron Mask. Sisqó played both the...

. It was later adapted for the stage and premiered in the latter format on 29 August 2009 at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark, located on the south bank of the River Thames, but destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt 1614 then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction is an academic best guess, based...

. It ran there until 9 October 2009, directed by Dominic Dromgoole

Dominic Dromgoole

Dominic Dromgoole is an English theatre director and writer about the theatre. He is married with three daughters, and lives in London.-Early life:...

 and starring John Light

John Light (actor)

John Light is an English cinema, television and theatre actor.-Career:His theatre performances include the Complete Works Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he starred in Sean Holmes' Julius Caesar as Brutus and in Rupert Goold's The Tempest as Caliban...

 in the title role. It continues a run of new plays at the Globe on the broad theme of revolution, following Eric Schlosser

Eric Schlosser

Eric Schlosser is an American journalist and author known for investigative journalism, such as in his books Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness and Chew On This.- Personal History :...

's We The People and Jack Shepherd

Jack Shepherd

Jack Shepherd is an English actor, playwright, theatre director, saxophone player and jazz pianist, who made his film debut in 1969 with All Neat in Black Stockings and The Virgin Soldiers. He is perhaps best known for his television roles, most notably the title role in detective drama Wycliffe...

's Holding Fire!

Holding Fire!

Holding Fire! is a play by the English playwright and actor Jack Shepherd. Making its debut at the Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London in July 2007, the play tracks the rise and fall of the Chartist movement in Britain during the first half of the 19th century...

 in 2007, and Glyn Maxwell

Glyn Maxwell

Glyn Maxwell is a British poet.-Early life:Though his parents are Welsh, Maxwell was born and raised in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. He studied English at Worcester College, Oxford. He began an MLitt there, but in 1987 moved to America to study poetry and drama with Derek Walcott at...

's Liberty in 2008.