Rebel Harbour

Marine Theatre Lyme Regis

IF you want to see one summer show this year, head for Lyme Regis, where Shanty Theatre is performing its new play Rebel Harbour until 3rd September.

The company was set up by Tim Bell and Harry Long in 2008, with the specific purpose of creating a show for the town, and three successful weeks of Smugglers was the result.

Now Shanty is back, and is already nudging at the space left by Kneehigh Theatre, now moved on to bigger venues and projects.

The link with Kneehigh comes from composer and musical director Stu Mcloughlin, who has written some rousing and witty songs for this show about Lyme Regis in the time of the Civil War. 

The five multi-talented performers who bring it to life play a multitude of characters, some historical and some invented for the plot, which starts at an authentically tedious and timeless meeting of the town council, and ends with the town fete.

In between there is the Siege, which lasted from 20th April to 15th June 1644 and was lifted (according to this exciting tale) only when the daughter of the local MP managed to escape her Royalist captors and warn the good people of Lyme of an impending attack.

With a couple of personal stories woven in, and three unexpected and hilariously portrayed creatures of the furry kind (I won’t spoil it by saying more) this really is a show for all the family.

It has one of the funniest death scenes ever devised. It’s full of quirky humour, derring-do, eccentric characters, great dancing (specially by Ewan Wardrop who is a former Adventures in Motion Pictures star), fine singing, multi-instrumental musicianship and fun.

If Shanty continues on this path, the company could well find itself following in the illustrious footsteps of Kneehigh – and that would be welcome on our touring theatre scene.

Rebel Harbour continues to Thursday 3rd Sept, nightly at 7.30 (not Fridays) with 3.30 matinees on Tuesdays and Thursdays.    

GP-W

Marshwood Vale