Production notes for "Hereward: The First English Rebel"
Welcome to the first play in our new season, a season which has special significance for us since we are embarking on a three-year project that investigates the very roots of East Anglia in English history.
Hereward marks the first stage in a three-play cycle that will examine the shaping of England up to the Norman Conquest from the arrival of our forebears, the original East Angles, who arrived from the Schleswig-Holstein area in north Europe in the fifth century.
The two other plays in the journey, following Hereward over the next two years, will be very different in character but provide a thread link this unearthing of our spiritual ancestors. The second play, The Sutton Hoo Mob, telling the dramatic and amusing story of the finding of the Sutton Hoo treasure in 1939, is being written by Peppy Barlow and will tour town and village halls in Spring 1994. The final play, The Wuffings, named after the dynasty who first ruled the East Anglian Kingdom, is set in the sixth century AD and will explore the events surrounding the actual ship burial at Sutton Hoo. It is being written by Kevin Crossley-Holland and will tour larger halls in Autumn 1995.
The plays are being produced in reverse historical order in order to provide stepping stones for us all. For together we will be travelling from a world that most people know something about, 1066 and the Norman invasion, towards a world deep in the dark ages that even archeologists still argue about. The shows will not form a trilogy since each play will be very individual, produced on a different scale and given its own very different theatrical interpretation. How different could not be better illustrated than by our treatment of Hereward, the most famous East Anglian figure in literary and legendary history. In updating the show to give it a modern relevance we have played fast and loose with period and place in terms of costume and accents. Our intention is not to be perversely cavalier but to avoid creating specific parallels that may label either side in the conflict and inhibit the story. Rather we hop the use of modern icons in our post-war age will help to give an idea of the complexity of international politics and alliances of the time.
Above all no attempt has been made to make the Normans in any way French not the Saxons particularly English, whatever that means. Then notion of being English has always intrigued me. Within the United Kingdom the English are the race that most often describe themselves as British. The Scots, Welsh and Irish would never do so.
And within England itself anyone who speaks with a pronounced dialect is often far more likely to see themselves as regional, as Yorkshiremen, Geordie or Scouse for example. Yet the irony is that much of what we particularly perceive as being English - southern, well-spoken, stiff upper lip, bulldog - is likely to be descended from the Norman side. The English aristocracy was largely destroyed at Stamford Bridge or Hastings. Following the conquest, William placed his own Norman abbots, administrators and knights at the head of church, state and army.
The briefest look at the early history of this country soon illustrates the great mix of peoples who inhabited this island before the Normans added their stock. It was something Defoe satirized in his epic poem The True Born Englishman. This and the fact that 1066, probably the most famous date in English History and often regarded as its starting point since it makes the last real invasion of this country, is so distant, helps explain the paradox of the absence of anything definably English. Whether one believes in the idea of the Norman yoke, that the free Saxons were enslaved by the Norman jackboot, or that the Normans finally brought order to a country rapidly going to the dogs, than becomes an issue of modern debate about our own times as much as then. In this way we hope this project will prove an exciting and entertaining look at our modern heritage rather than merely a resurrection of the past.
This ability to plan ahead is only possible because of the commitments made by our funding bodies, especially Eastern Arts Board and Suffolk County Council. It is therefore all the more pleasing to announce that Hereward marks the start of a new funding agreement with Cambridgeshire. We must thank the County's Arts Unit and the staff of the Cambridge Drama Centre who have enabled us to mark this occasion with a very suitable opening in Cambridge.
Finally we must thank Anglian Water for their sponsorship of this production. It is sheer accident that this production features the water laden land of the fens but we are proud to have their name linked with ours. In Norfolk we must than Barclays Bank for sponsoring the local performances. With Norwich Union also a major sponsor this year it is particularly gratifying that companies with a strong East Anglian link should be supporting our work.
Ivan Cutting - Artistic Director