Steve Trafford (Writer) Steve was a founding member of Red Ladder Theatre, where his credits included: Taking Our Time (Dir. Michael Attenborough) and Ladders to the Moon (Dir. Annie Castledine). He wrote Marie (UK and USA tours, Fortune Theatre, and BBC Radio Four), as well as Hymn to Love (Mercury Colchester, Drill Hall London, Traverse 1 Edinburgh Festival and adapted for BBC Radio Three). He translated Brecht’s The Mother for a UK tour, and co-devised Portraits in Song with Elizabeth Mansfield for tours in the UK and USA, followed by A Cloud in Trousers at York Theatre Royal and a UK tour, and a new translation of Ay Carmela by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra for York Theatre Royal and a UK tour. Steve’s work for the screen includes the Channel Four Feature Film T Dan Smith and many popular TV series including The Knock, Heartbeat, Medics, Wycliffe, The Bill and the BBC Series Between the Lines for which he won a Writers Guild Award. Most recently he has been a regular writer for Midsomer Murders.
Our huge thanks to all those who have helped support and promote this production, especially: John Bright, Max Brittain, Beatrix Campbell OBE, Professor Laura Gowing, Pete Jacobs, Glenn Keiles, Rolf Kruger, Phyllis Mansfield, Steve Muckersie, Leslie Pearson, Merril Jenkins-Rose, Stephen Rose.
The Restoration of Nell Gwyn was first performed at The Studio, York Theatre Royal on 9 October 2014. Following an opening run, the show toured to regional venues throughout the UK. The production was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Henry Purcell 1659-1695 Henry Purcell was born in Old Pye Street, a notorious slum area of Westminster, known as ‘The Devil’s Acre’. His father and uncle were both musicians and ‘Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal’. Purcell became a chorister of the Chapel under Pelham Humfrey, who had been sent to France by Charles II to learn the French style. The gifted Purcell was composing by the time he was eleven. He stayed on at the Chapel Royal, after his voice had broken, studying with John Blow and later succeeded Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey. Purcell was prodigious, composing songs and anthems, church music, music for plays, and odes for special occasions, his most famous being the three odes for St Cecilia’s day. Purcell wrote everything from incidental music, lively dance numbers, passionate arias, to rollicking choruses and comical catches. He also wrote the first English ‘opera’ Dido and Aeneas for the girls of Josiah Priest’s boarding school, in Chelsea. Its most famous aria ‘Dido’s Lament’’ remains one of the best beloved arias of all time. Purcell enriched the English Baroque style with Italian and French influences, to create powerfully expressive tonal music, with brilliant vocal settings. His influence on contemporary classical and popular music continues. He was a powerful influence on Benjamin Britten’s work; and Pete Townshend of the rock group ‘The Who’ identified Purcell as a key influence in the group’s music. Purcell is buried beneath the organ in Westminster Abbey. His memorial tablet states that he ‘… is gone to that Blessed Place where, only, his harmony can be exceeded’.
For a lively, accessible read about the historical context of The Restoration of Nell Gwyn, including timelines, articles and information about the English Civil War, Women in the 17th Century, the Restoration Theatre and more, please visit our website at www.ensemble-online.com and follow the link to The Restoration of Nell Gwyn, then click ‘Learning resource pack’
Registered Charity No. 1134292
Email: [email protected] Web address: www.ensemble-online.com
The Restoration of Nell Gwyn
Co-producers: Ensemble and York Theatre Royal
In association with Park Theatre
About ENSEMBLE
Ensemble was formed in 2001 by Elizabeth Mansfield and Steve Trafford to work collaboratively with other artists in creating and touring new theatre work exploring the relationship between music, text and song, alongside educational programmes for young people.
The company has produced seven original theatre, music pieces, all of which have toured extensively in the UK, and some in the USA: Portraits in Song - Edith Piaf and Bertolt Brecht; The Greatest Drummer in the World; The Uninvited – Songs and Stories of Exile; Clara’s Gift (based on Robert Schumann’s song cycle ‘Frauenliebe und Leben’); Ludwig’s Ghost (with the Peabody Trio, Baltimore USA) featuring Goethe’s ‘West-Östlicher Divan’ and Beethoven’s E flat and ‘Ghost’ piano trios.
Ensemble enjoys a special relationship with York Theatre Royal who supported and co-produced with us: A Cloud in Trousers by Steve Trafford, about the Russian Futurist poet Vladimir Myakovsky; Ay Carmela by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra, translated by Steve Trafford; Souvenir d’Anne Frank, devised by Elizabeth Mansfield, to the music of Colin Decio’s ‘ Het Achterhuis’ piano trio. Also, a revival of Marie by Steve Trafford, which had previously enjoyed two runs at the Fortune Theatre, London.
Ensemble has also produced in association with Theatre by the Lake Keswick, the Drill Hall London, Z-arts Manchester and Leeds Lieder. Ensemble’s work has been supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Spelthorne Borough Council.
We have taken workshops accompanying several productions into schools, and also, alongside Souvenir d’Anne Frank, worked with Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) in Manchester to create an exhibition to accompany the show on tour. The Uninvited – Songs and Stories of Exile was performed in Bronzefield Prison to launch a workshop programme with women prisoners encouraging them to tell their own stories. The workshops culminated in a show, written and performed by the prisoners themselves.
Ensemble is Registered Charity 1134292, and the company’s Patron is Josette Bushell-Mingo.
www.ensemble-online.com
About YORK THEATRE ROYAL
York Theatre Royal has been producing great drama in the beautiful city of York for over 250 years and is one of the country’s leading producing theatres. Each year the theatre entertains over 200,000 people with its wide variety of performances, events and activities including the much loved annual pantomime starring Berwick Kaler, the UK’s longest running Dame.
Over the last ten years York Theatre Royal’s work has expanded to include collaborations with the wider community and school groups both on and off stage. The theatre has seen an increase in the number of young people wanting to get involved and as a result they now have one of the largest youth theatre groups in the country with over 300 members.
In recent years, the theatre has had huge success in terms of number of attendees and various awards recognising their work for The Railway Children hosted at the National Railway Museum and then transferred to the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo, and the large scale production of The York Mystery Plays 2012 involving over 1,000 members of the community.
York Theatre Royal closed its doors in March 2015 to complete a major capital project, the first in almost 50 years. During this year the theatre has taken up residency at the purpose built Signal Box Theatre at the National Railway Museum. Working in partnership with the NRM, the theatre has produced two large scale productions – In Fog and Falling Snow, The Railway Children and the world-famous annual pantomime Dick Whittington (and his