Theatre is important.

I love theatre…not a particularly surprising confession I know but a true one none the less and yesterday I was reminded about one of the principal reasons I love it.

This weekend seven Yew Tree actors have been resident in Nostell Priory portraying real women who lived at or in the vicinity of the estate during World War 1.  It’s part of the Red Poppies and White Butterflies project that is ongoing at the Priory this year.  The impact of the performances we staged in the great house has been immense in a small and humble way.

When I got the commission to write the script for the performance I was delighted…such a gift of an opportunity.  To soak up the history of these seven very different characters and create the words I thought they would say if they had been asked to talk about their experiences during the war was a privilege.  I thoroughly enjoyed putting fingertips to keyboard as I put my mind and heart in theirs.

Weeks later the rehearsals and planning needed to make an event like this happen has been completed and I am sat in Nostell Priory typing this blog.  Al around me is the buzz of a full house of visitors lapping up the stories in the same way I did when I first discovered them.  The response to what we made has been overwhelming, so many lovely words from the audience about how the house has felt alive.  How they have enjoyed and been enlightened by their experience or how they have been given the chance to enjoy memories that have been put to one side over the years.

Theatre is important, fact. Our weekend is proof of that.  These intimate performances seen by three or four people at a time over the course of two afternoons have allowed people to connect.  In total hundreds of people have connected with their history…their ancestors, each other…their community, their heritage.  A piece of their parents, grandparents or great grandparents lives have been brought to life and for a moment they can reflect on where they have come from.  This general sense of connection and belonging is underlined by some very specific examples…as yesterday George and Jessica came face to face with their Mother, Eva White – or at least Gemma portraying Eva…Gemma had no idea who was in her audience until she got to the last line of the speech,

“I was proud though, because I knew like so many others I’d done my bit to help win the war…that I’d done what I could when it was called for…that because of our generation my children and grandchildren would be able to live in freedom.”

George Hepworth replied from the audience, “And we did,”  there was a pause, “You’re my Mum.”  There wasn’t an arm that didn’t have goose bumps, or a throat without a lump in it.  Tears were shed and not because of some overblown emotional reconstruction but because in that moment of past connecting with the present real, powerful, important theatre was made. 

Throughout the weekend there were hundreds of moments like this, not perhaps as dramatic but important and powerful all the same…so yes, I proudly state that I love theatre and it’s been wonderful to have spent a weekend being reminded of exactly why.