Almost Forgotten • Badbury Rings (2023)
Almost Forgotten – The story of the Clubmen at Badbury Rings was performed by Wimborne Community Theatre and Millstream Theatre, with members of Palida Choir, on September 29 and 30, 2023 as part of Glow Badbury, a large-scale arts project on Badbury Rings, produced by Emerald Ant, working with National Trust Kingston Lacy to create an exciting trail featuring 4 artworks and lanterns created by artists working with local school children and community groups. All artworks are inspired by the wildlife and ancient heritage of the Rings.
About the production
WCT was invited to create a new piece of theatre to portray the story of the Dorset Clubmen. During the English Civil War in the 1640s, thousands of East Dorset tradesmen, farmers and farm labourers met at the Rings to protest against both sides in the war trampling across their land, damaging their crops and stealing livestock and produce. Church bells were rung around the villages and over 4000 turned out to hear a Proclamation read aloud up at the Rings in May, 1645.
In April, we invited local historian, Haydn Wheeler, to tell us about the history of the Clubmen in Dorset, and their proclamation, Desires and Resolutions. Haydn’s in-depth knowledge caught our interest and imagination, and we began a series of workshops exploring the themes.
With composer, Karen Wimhurst, we created two songs using the texts from the Clubmen’s proclamation. Karen set these to music and rehearsed the songs with a new WCT choir. She also arranged music for drums performed by Wimborne young musicians.
Choreographer, Claire Benson, helped the group move as an ensemble on the uneven territory of the Rings.
Drawing by Stewart MacArthur
To read who was involved (performers, artists, volunteers), see here
Photos
Photos of Wimborne Community Theatre and Millstream Theatre’s production of Almost Forgotten at the Glow Badbury event.
Thank you to Jayne Jackson for her great photographic record of the event. All the photographs in this collection are her work.
Video
Watch 2 videos of the production
Emerald Ant’s overview of the project
Haydn Wheeler’s video of the performance of Almost Forgotten by WCT and Millstream Theatre
Research
Listen to The Desires and Resolutions of the Dorset and Wilts Clubmen taken from Haydn Wheeler’s YouTube channel.
Script
Read an outline of the movement and scenes performed by the ensemble of Millstream Theatre, Wimborne Community Theatre and Palida Choir.
Songs
Read the words of the songs from Almost Forgotten, sung by Palida Choir with WCT and Millstream performers.
– Club Declaration
– Proclamation Song
The words were composed at a WCT workshop led by Karen Wimhurst who then put them to music.
© Songs are copyright of Karen Wimhurst and Wimborne Community Theatre