New musical On Hostile Ground will initially be released as a free series of music videos online from 16 February as part of Northampton’s Royal & Derngate Made in Northampton 2021 season of original new musical theatre.
Co-created and directed by Charlotte Westenra with lyrics by Darren Clark, a book by Juliet Gilkes Romero and music and orchestrations by Michael Henry, the project had been due to debut at BEAM 2020.
With opportunities for live performance limited due to Covid-19, the writers transformed their work into 14 music videos and straight-to-camera monologues filmed at home by the actors during lockdown.
Featured performers include Ray Fearon (Guys and Dolls, Royal Exchange); (Dawn Hope, Follies, National Theatre); Norman Bowman (42nd Street, West End); Tyrone Huntley (Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Arun Blair-Mangat (& Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre); Nari Blair-Mangat (Cyrano de Bergerac, Playhouse Theatre), Rodney Vubya (Evita, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); and Paige Davies and Ashton James Griffiths from Royal & Derngate and Silhouette Youth Theatres.
Based on personal stories of those affected by government immigration policies, On Hostile Ground emerged from the Musical Theatre Dark Room development residency held at Royal & Derngate in 2019 in partnership with China Plate, Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network.
The launch of the first three videos on 16 February will be accompanied by the first in a series of free Q & A sessions, The Hostile Environment: Impact and Legacy.
Angela Thomas
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