7 of 8 August 2024 The 1805 Dispatches #24.04 Playwright and Director Christopher Swann has sent this for 1805 Club members. He wrote to us: I am at the moment working hard to assemble the budget to put it on with the Playground Theatre (which is a charity so qualifies for charitable donations and grants - all the money going to the Theatre) but most importantly I would wish for an audience who might enjoy the subject matter to know about it and buy tickets. "ADMIRAL BYNG" By Christopher Swann THE THIRD PLAY OF THE "LOST TRILOGY" The narrative of "Admiral Byng" is set on March 13th & 14th 1757 and plays out through the last two days of Jack Byng's life, knowing that he will be shot on the quarterdeck of HMS Monarch at noon on the final day. The action itself is set in the master cabin of the ship, on a quayside and outside a nearby Inn. It is a play about friendship, navy life, betrayal, scapegoating and of one man, John Byng (known as Jack to his friends), finding peace to die with dignity, believing his dishonour was unjust, that he did do his utmost, and hoping that history would find him innocent of any fault. So far it hasn't. The main characters are Byng and his long-time servant and valet Hutchens. Byng comes to terms with his fate, opens up to Hutchens and finds friendship and warmth in his final hours. The two create a bond that becomes stronger as Byng's final minutes tick by and both discover depths in the other that might never have emerged if fate hadn't decided on the scapegoating of Byng for ‘not doing his utmost’, leading to his inevitable death. The supporting cast are Captain Augustus Hervey one of Byng's fiercest supporters, Byng's sister Sarah Osborne and a young man called Nicholas. Hervey was known as the 'Naval Casanova' and much later became the Earl of Bristol. Sarah had eleven brothers - when Byng was shot, she was left with none - all of them were dead. Nicholas is about to join the Navy and is brought by Hervey to meet the Admiral for this one and only time. A meeting that resonates through the rest of Nicholas's life. There are two sailors who interrupt the action with the ballads and songs of the day that were heard in the streets as the public voice of both condemnation and support of Byng. On his final night Byng is visited in a dream by a Frenchman, Monsieur Arouet, otherwise known as the philosopher Voltaire. https://sites.google.com/a/christopherswann.co.uk/ christopherswann/home “SWING, SWING, ADMIRAL BYNG” Earlier this year (March 31st) saw the 40th anniversary of the closure of Chatham Dockyard and the beginning of an extraordinary effort to save its historic 80-acre Georgian core; the most complete dockyard in the world from the age of sail. The site includes many important buildings associated with the Royal Navy’s emergence during the long Georgian century as the greatest industrial organisation in the then Western world. In 1711 Chatham alone had a workforce of 1300 people with innovations such as professional managers, the recruitment, training and deployment of staff, the coordination of manufacturing processes, and the use of machinery predating most histories of the Industrial Revolution. Responsibility for the repair and upkeep of the buildings on site lies with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust which is also charged with maintaining a major visitor educational attraction. For more info, go to: www.thedockyard.co.uk For the Officer’s Terrace gardens: https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ 2020/10/GGRJ_1988_02_Hall_0001.pdf For the Ropery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIC-kfHZyfs CHATHAM HISTORIC DOCKYARD CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY
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