| Date | Time |
| Thursday 15th Mar |
| 19 : 30 |
Much Ado About Wenlock
Age: Suitable for all ages
Vamos Theatre, in association with The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, presents its new touring production, Much Ado About Wenlock.
In the year 1850 the small Shropshire village of Much Wenlock hosted its very own ‘Olympian Games’, an event that was to be an inspiration for the modern Olympics that began 46 years later. Behind this seemingly mild-mannered event, where country sports combined with wheelbarrow races and a competition for a bag of tea (‘the old-ladies’ race’), lay a struggle for equality and the right to health and well-being, set during the changing world of the Industrial Revolution.
The play centres around the characters from the local community as they train for, and compete in, this amazing annual event: the butcher’s wife practises her hammer throws with un-plucked pheasants; the postman uses his letters and parcels to perfect his discus; the local school children (under the training of their strict school mistress) will do their very best! The whole Victorian household is going for gold.
With London 2012 approaching, Vamos Theatre explores the Olympic Games’ unlikely UK roots, creating a dynamic, accessible, multi-disciplinary theatre production that engages and appeals to audiences from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. A full mask show, with original music, a combination of physicality, theatricality and dance choreography, Much Ado About Wenlock, will be rooted in historical research: the political and personal forming the basis of a creative and hugely inventive adventure.
