Perkin Warbeck - 
A Strange Truth

by John Ford

This project stems from C P Hallam's (director) passion for putting the audience central to the creative process and the performance. 

Having spent a large part of his time in rural and small-scale touring  he understands the importance of audiences being connected to the work, not necessarily by physical participation but by emotional connection with it. Audiences understand and connect with work through ownership and involvement with the work; theatre work best when audiences want to emotionally and intelectually invest in it.

Theatre can sometimes be a passive experience, 'us here, them there', and that passivity can often allow audiences to disconnect from the live experience. This project's aim was to take a gripping story, a challenging script and work with performers from disciplines where audience connection was excellent (stand-up, puppetry, clowning etc) and explore what techniques could be borrowed and applied to this play to make it accessible and comprehensible. 

Through a series of workshops over 18 months, where various performance disciplines and ideas were explored, we discovered the most suitable techniques to apply to the edited script  prior to a 'work-in-progress' performance at The Cockpit Theatre, London. 

Sadly, due to funding the project had to be postponed, but the idea is still very much there for a future revival. However, the work done on the actor/audience relationship through the workshops has considerably influenced the foundations of Kindred Theatre.  

the story 

A kingdom at peace after a 100 years of war, a king on the throne with dubious claims, plots, suspicion and treachery and news spreads that a handsome young prince has returned, long thought dead, to claim his rightful throne. 

However, this is no fairytale but one of England’s great lost true stories.

A tale about identity, corruption and ‘spin’, of loyalties bought and friendships broken, of innocence condemned and the guilty set free. And all in the name of ‘peace’. Perkin Warbeck explores the nature of kingship and how power is gained, held and wielded. It examines how power can be abused, how economics sway allegiances and how injustice can be legitimised in the name of the greater good. This is a morality tale about integrity and how honesty and truth can come from the most unlikely of people. 

---

those involved

The work done to date has been hugely successful in no small part to these performers:

• Victoria Brazier
  
• Daniel Hoffman-Gill
• Paula James
• Liz Landon
• Adam Loxley
• Paul Trussell
• Dan Willis

project on hold

The performs involved gave up a great deal of time in the initial stages of this project to help make it what it was. When it came to the 6 days needed to do the concentrated work on the text, prior to the 'work-in-progress' performance at The Cockpit, London, we wanted to ensure they were paid for their work. 

Sadly, funding was not forthcoming at that time, consequently the project has been put on hold until such time as the performers can rightly be paid for the stage of the development.