Features and Reviews

Brixham's Castle

Brixham's Castle proved to be a wonderfully unique piece of open air theatre, enjoyed by audiences on three consecutive August evenings, with the play about the Napoleonic Fort at Berry Head, performed in parts of its original setting.

Created by local writer David Murphy the dedicated team of local actors directed by John Fabian re- created a sense of life at the remains of the Berry Head South Fort with confident portrayals of very likely characters and events throughout the forts time of active service. With the perfect setting and well devised costumes the wide age range of actors bonded to create an ensemble performance. Effectively cast members drilled to capture the feel of marching soldiers who went on to mingle with harlots visiting the fort, then they all managed to transport everyone across the sea to a vivid scene of the French Revolution, with the patriotic cast members calling for the ‘guillotine' and ‘justice' in a dramatic beheading scene!

Indeed the audience discovered in the first act how the Berry Head fort was built in a response to Napoleon's threatening behaviour following his rise to power after the French Revolution. In his desire to take over the British Isle, Harry Bird playing Napoleon, felt that it would not be a difficult task to take control of what he called, ‘a Nation of Shopkeepers.' The erratic King George played by Gordon Smith calls for everyone to be' vigilant' and to deal with the threat of an invasion attempt. Thus a building contract was taken out for a fort at Berry Head, with a woman, unusually for the time, involved in planning the construction.

As the soldiers move in, many boys came to the fort from working on the local farms. Many of the actors were also boys who were drilled with riffles by Corporal Stone (Phil Trayhorn) with their tough life highlighted in a scene showing the sever disciplining of one of his men.

As they prepared for invasion, the news of the Battle of Trafalgar, with the defeat of the French Navy and Nelson's death, reached Brixham via the Town crier played by Chris Mackenzie –Thorpe. He continued to interrupt proceedings with news including the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon's final defeat. The king's decision to send Napoleon to the Island of St Helena brought to an end this threat to England and the cast concluded with another burst of folk tunes including , ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor', before taking their bow. The music throughout was provided by three excellent musicians, often combined with the women singing and dancing to evoke more of the times, as events were revealed between 1780 and 1815.

Phil Trayhorn as producer thanked the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, Brixham Heritage Museum, Brixham Coastguard, Dartington Playgoers Society, BOADS and Heritage Lottery Fund for enabling the production to take place. Equally the cast were thankful that the weather also played its part.