When We were Queens

 

Written by Peter Straughan

Barrow Youth Theatre was chosen from amateur companies all over the Northern Region to take part in Future Tense, a festival of 5 new plays written especially for non-professional groups by 5 exciting playwrights from the region.

CAST

John Cherie Wood

Kit Emma Zimmerman

William Hayley Mahon

Jimmy Layla Davies

Beckett Leigh Thorne

Phillip Matthew Grisedale

Sid Owen Charnley

Chris Nichola Biggens

Thomas Robin Lennox

Jack Danny McKeating

Paul Dan Moore

Benno David Shipley

Henry David Woods

Jonathan Laura Barker

When we Were Queens is based upon three facts.

Firstly, as it was illegal for women to act on the Elizabethan stage, the female roles in Shakespeare’s plays were originally played by companies of boy actors.

Secondly, the boys were often struggling with poverty and  were forced into the life of rent boys.

Thirdly - with very few exceptions - they remain to this day  unknown, their names unrecorded in any history of the English  stage.

When We Were Queens explores the lives of some of these boy actors as their struggle to survive leads them into an underworld of drugs, prostitution and murder.

The play opens in the wings of The Globe Theatre during a performance of Hamlet . . .

Performed by Barrow Senior Youth Theatre at The Forum, Barrow in January 1999 and at Live Theatre, Newcastle in April 1999

CREW

Director Wils Wilson

Composer/SoundDesign Olly Fox

Assisstant Director Phillip Gregg

Stage Manager Laura Moss

Production Manager Richie Orr

Lighting Design Paul Colley

Lighting Technician Leigh Paton

Sound Technician Tony Wilcock

Wardrobe Assisstants Laura Barker, Cherie Wood