IN THIS, the 200th anniversary year of the building of the Bude Canal, Bude Youth Theatre were invited by the Bude Canal and Harbour Society to create and perform an original musical play to commemorate this significant event in the town’s history, writes Christine Williams.
After a great deal of research, with contributions from Philippa Fitzpatrick whose ancestor John Hallett features in the play, director Richard Wolfenden-Brown created from scratch a fast moving piece of theatre with original music composed by Thomas Marples. There were five performances at Budehaven Community School last week (March 27 to 30) including a matinee for children from five local primary schools where Richard and Thomas had run workshops to prepare the children and enhance their enjoyment of the production.
‘The Bude Canal hides measureless treasure, now and forever, unfathomable secrets deep in its hidden depths’. So go the words of the song which gives the play its title, ‘Hidden Depths’ in which a journey through the past and present of the canal is skilfully woven. The need for sand to be spread on farmland in the hinterland was what prompted the construction of the canal, so the curtain rises on ‘Ceres’, the goddess of crops, decrying the poor quality of the land, and a farmer discovering that seeds can grow when the earth is dressed in sand. The audience meet the Smale family on their way to visit Bude on July 23, 2019, the very date when 200 years ago the opening ceremony took place. They see familiar Bude sights: people surfing, jogging, walking dogs, playing crazy golf; they even visit Sainsbury’s now famous tunnel before reaching the canal. Their daughter, 12-year-old Meredith, is separated from her family and falls into the canal where below the water she meets the ghosts of those who drowned there more than 200 years ago. They invite her to stay and begin to relate their stories of the characters and events that shaped the growth of Bude.
Major events such as the lively opening ceremony, the building of the canal, the destruction of the breakwater in a storm, the construction of inclined planes, the thwarting of plans to close the canal were all chronicled, at times with gravity, at others with fun, along with accidents, drownings and personal joys and sorrows. Against a background of occasional photographs of the canal, the well-drilled cast of 24, aged nine to 16, and drawn from local schools moved with precision and energy throughout. Amazingly they played 81 characters between them and hardly left the stage. Using a variety of props and their bodies, they creates a car, a tunnel, the breakwater, tub boats and barges as well as fighting fierce battles, digging the canal, skating on ice, creating an inclined plane, becoming unwanted invasive species and performing capers.
Among those in prominent roles were ‘Meredith’, played by Iona Rowland, a versatile Joe Chapman as ‘Mervyn Musk’, ‘George III’ and ‘Napoleon’, Dan Ellis as ‘Dad Smale’ and Meredith’s ancestor ‘John Hallett’, Bobbo Peers as ‘Mr Martin Combe’ with Daisy Bevan as his wife ‘Brenda’, Josie Miller as ‘Gran Smale’, ‘Lady Call’ and as a memorable ‘Janet Hillier’ of Bude Power Walkers, Maisie Haylock as a reporter, Mirabelle Barratt as ‘Eliza’ and also a reporter, Rohan Ellis as the two ‘Lords Stanhope’, Edie Sinclair as ‘Miss Arthur’, a school teacher and a ubiquitous Jack Whelan as American canal designer ‘Robert Fulton’ among others parts. Other members of the cast were: Poppy Barber, Bea Barratt, Amalie Burford, Elowen Cholerton, Dora Cunningham, Rohan Ellis,Tessa Macdonald, Thea Harmen, Jessica Meaker, Zoisa Peers, Bethan Price, Despina Samara and Erin Wright.
The cast’s slick movement and wholehearted singing of the production numbers including the rousing finale ‘Hidden Depths’, showed how much they enjoyed the songs composed by Thomas Marples, currently in Year 12 and bound for the Royal Academy of Music later this year. One song, ‘Day of Days’ was composed by Bobbo Peers.
Choreography was by Clare Collingham and since she and Mr Wolfenden-Brown established Bude Youth Theatre in 1999 it has provided opportunities for more than 300 young people aged nine to 17 years to perform in 22 productions and become involved in a wide range of arts workshops, drama, dance, singing, devising and performing.
Director Mr Wolfenden-Brown, the dynamic cast, musicians and all the helpers deserve the highest praise for this outstanding production which provides a fitting prelude to a series of events and private walks planned by the Bude Canal and Harbour Society and the Bude Canal Trust Ltd to celebrate the canal’s bi-centenary.
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