Alan Bennett's new play People takes swipe at National Trust Alan Bennett's new play People was prompted by a sense of unease with the National Trust. In an essay for the London Review of Books, Bennett has explained the inspiration behind the play, which starts previews at the National Theatre this evening. Some plays seem to start with an itch, an irritation, something one can't solve or a feeling one can't locate. With People it was a sense of unease when going round a National Trust house and being required to buy into the role of reverential visitor," wrote Bennett. The writer - whose play The History Boys was a huge success when it first premiered at the National Theatre in 2004 - said the work looked at how Britain is becoming "less and less...a nation and more and more just a captive market to be exploited." In the play, the plot of which has been a closely guarded secret, Bennett juxtaposes this idea with a stately home owned by the National Trust. The house is used as a set for a porn film and the play imagines the National Trust to be "entirely without inhibition, ready to exploit any aspect of the property's recent history." Bennett says the work could be called a 'play for England'. He compares it with his 1971 play Getting On and says that the character of Dorothy Stacpoole a former owner of a stately home complains generally 'about England'. Francis de la Tour will star in the show which will be directed by Nicholas Hytner and runs until February next year.