The Boatswain’s Mate
Arcola Theatre (Grimeborn) | July - August 2018
Music and libretto by Ethel Smyth (1913-14), after a short story by William Wymark Jacobs
‘Fix a date for Dreamland Margate…’
June 1953: peace reigns in Europe, and the waters of the English Channel are troubled only by excitable holidaymakers as Britain celebrates the coronation of its new Queen. Young and old alike have flocked to Margate for summer loving, healthy air and strolls on the promenade.
But, at a quiet pub set back from the seafront, the landlady has a nuisance on her hands. She’s confronted with a suitor who simply won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. When he comes up with a last-ditch plan to win her heart, our formidable heroine gives him more than he’d bargained for…
A hundred years since women were first given the right to vote, Spectra Ensemble presents a rare revival of this 1914 opera by Suffragette composer Ethel Smyth, complete with all the quintessential sounds and sights of British summertime.
★★★★
‘a fantastic performance’
Musical Theatre Review
‘disarming, surprising and brilliant’
theatreCat
‘an admirable enterprise’
Planet Hugill
Director: Cecilia Stinton
Musical Director: John Warner
Designer: Christianna Mason
Lighting Designer: Ali Hunter
Producer: Jessie Anand
Cast: Shaun Aquilina, Hilary Cronin, Christopher Foster, Michael T K Lam, Lily Evangeline Scott, John Upperton
Images © Robert Workman
