Yorkshire Scandals

Friargate Theatre, York 2017

Co-Produced with Wildgoose Theatre

Re:Verse teamed up with Wildgoose Theatre and Script Yorkshire to present the classical one-act 'A Yorkshire Tragedy' alongside a freshly commissioned play based on modern day Yorkshire news stories, called 'The Taskers' Trials'.

​

A Yorkshire Tragedy was written in the early 1600s, based on a scandalous series of domestic murders by a family in social and financial crisis. The perpetrator was executed in York, a stone's throw from the site of our production. The news story was crafted into a fast-moving piece of theatre that has been hailed as 'among the finest one-act plays in English' by eminent Shakespearean scholar Stanley Wells (who wrote an original program note for our production).

​

Both plays were presented by the same cast, highlighting parallels between the financial and family struggles across time and class. Puppetry was used as a metaphor for the struggle for control over characters' lives and choices, and newspaper elements in the set and costumes highlighted the original, real-life inspiration of these tales.