Theatre is supported by:Arts Council England (West Midlands)
Shropshire County Council
South Shropshire District Council
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The Peggy Ramsay Foundation
National Foundation for Youth Music
The Mary Webb Society
If you have enjoyed this production of Precious Bane and would like to find out more about The Mary Webb Society and their events please see the sociiety’s website on www.marywebb.2ya.com or contact the membership secretary on 01952 419078.
‘If music be the food of love, Get out your recorders’
– Mr Snow, Headmaster
Long, long ago, in The Mists of Time, when I was at school, our music teacher was the turbulent Mrs Waller, who was famous on two counts: one, she was reputed to own a dinner service which could accommodate a seating of twenty-one people, all with the same pattern on all their plates…and two, she always had to go to the staff room for ‘some notes’ halfway through every music lesson, returning ten minutes later, much calmer and smelling of cigarette smoke. At every Parents Evening, her first words to my parents were always, ‘You don’t really want me to tell you what Bryony’s like at music, do you?’, and my parents, who did know exactly what I was like at music from the many entertainments mounted by my sister and I in our kitchen, bedroom, back garden…would say, ‘No, of course not!’, and the talk would be of Other Matters. I thought the clef-carved doors to the World of Harmony, Finding the Note and Singing in Tune were forever closed to me. Then I started to write for a living and realised I could sneak in the back door as a Lyricist. What’s more, when you are adapting the work of a great, poetic wordsmith like Mary Webb, you can pretty much use all her wonderful words as the lyrics! So it is, this year, that I get to be a part of this exciting event…not only do I work with the peerless Theresa Heskins again, whose eight talented actors tell the fabulous story of Precious Bane, but I am also part of Mary Keith’s gorgeous, haunting music, sung by the fantastic choirs of Shropshire, Worcestershire, Somerset and Berkshire. For someone with a tin ear and Florence Foster Jenkins’ talent for rhythm…it doesn’t get any better than this! If there is a heaven on earth this summer, it is here, it is here, it is here.
Now all I aspire to is that 21-person dinner set…
Bryony Lavery
June 2003
The Planning of Precious Bane or how to make 200 new friends!
Pentabus Theatre, the small touring company based in Ludlow which will celebrate their 30th anniversary this year, enjoys two quite distinguished and distinct reputations: one for nurturing and touring new plays, often with a theme that is resonant of the most rural county in the UK where the company flourishes, and the other for large-scale outdoor community plays in Shropshire which involve a vast cast of local people alongside the professional actors. Bryony Lavery’s SHOT THROUGH THE HEART was one of these big productions, produced in the atmospheric setting of Ludlow Castle in 2000.
Bryony’s PRECIOUS BANE is neither one nor the other of these types of productions – it is both! That is, a world premiere script by an award-winning writer with a community choir involving up to 100 singers at every performance. Last year the production sold out in 4 counties throughout the UK – Shropshire, Worcestershire, Somerset and Berkshire. When the Shrewsbury Summer Season invited Pentabus to re-stage the play for this year’s festival, the company were already familiar with the logistics of recruiting, rehearsing, individually choreographing and costuming so many people.
CDs were distributed which detailed all the singing parts, so people could practice at home. Weekly rehearsals were orchestrated, led by Sue Harris and Tony Belfield, with monthly Sunday sessions led by Mary Keith and assistant director Jo Cattell, who brought everyone together to work through the play, scene by scene and song by song.
The timetabling of sessions has required the logistical planning of air-traffic control. The project required enormous commitment and everyone you see in the show tonight has dedicated much of their spare time over the last few months to the production. There are three choirs here – one for every week of the Shrewsbury run – although many people are singing in two! They have been joined by a professional cast of 8 actors, some of who were in the original production. Now all we have to worry about is recruiting fine weather…
Reviews from the 2003 premiere of PRECIOUS BANE included:
‘Sublime’ The Times
‘Darkly delightful…full of wit, invention and charm. Outdoor theatre doesn’t come better than this.’ The Guardian
‘Bewitching. Time is rewound and the audience transfixed–with a cracking pace, stunning visual effects, and the quite superb singing of a 60-strong choir.’ The Stage
‘Gripping, uplifting and funny – a good night’s entertainment and an unqualified success!’ Shropshire Star
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