We have the called the show? A Cut Through Time because it is about a specific period in Braunston's history, and a play on words. The canal is part of the history of Braunston along with the school, the village hall, all the pubs (present and past), the High Street, memories of the glue factory and the church.?
A Cut Through Time is based on real people and events in Braunston in the 1920s. A period of new inventions, fun and frolics, and increasing liberation for women. But there were strikes, the aftermath of a flu pandemic, rising prices and scary house hold bills. Sound familiar?
Lots of Braunston people have helped make this show. Writers who came to our early summer workshops, children at the school who brought the story of the boatmen's strike to life in their summer show The Day the Boats Stopped?and local residents who are on The Bugle (the village facebook site) and happy to answer questions about what Braunston means to them. We interviewed people in their front rooms who could remember the old village school and met older residents in The Wheatsheaf who were happy to share stories about skating on the canal and gathering coal in a pram. As one of them said over a pint of best
"There's an awful lot of history in Braunston".
There are other pubs available in Braunston of course and one of the scenes in A Cut Through Time ends with a song celebrating the pubs that have been and gone, as well as the four still serving. There were 26 pubs in Braunston once for the farm hands, station staff, post master and mistress, local bobbies, vicars, butchers and bakers but not the Baptist and Methodist ministers of course! All of these folk are listed on the 1921 Census which has just been released into the public domain and is a fantastic source of everybody who was in Braunston in April 1921. Just over 1,000 people were resident, and it also recorded the boating families who were at the wharf on their way through to Birmingham or Brentford, Limehouse or Leicester.?
A Cut Through Time will be performed Thursday 12th, Friday 13th and Saturday 14th October at 7.30pm in the village hall. It is part of a double bill with our new touring show Rats, Ropes and Revolutions. Tickets are on sale now on Eventbrite and cost £13 (£10 concessions) for which you get a whole evening's entertainment, a raffle and refreshments for sale. {All on your doorstep.}
Log onto eventbrite www.eventbrite.co.uk and search 'Braunston'. If you are not online you can ring 07976 818959 to reserve tickets. There?may?be tickets on the door but we only have 50 per performance so best to book.?