The Last Wilderness to Premiere at Harehope

The Last Wilderness, a play telling the story of a North Pennines hill farmer, will premiere this September in the beautiful surroundings of Harehope Quarry, Frosterley, County Durham.

The site-specific theatre project will be performed by a 60 strong cast of professional actors and singers alongside amateur choirs and singers, children, young people’s choirs, and local people. Combining theatre with music, new songs (performed on a variety of traditional and newly-created site-specific instruments including musical stones) and giant puppets.

The Last Wilderness tells the story of Thomas Allman, a North Pennines hill farmer, faced with the biggest decision of his life. Should he sell his farm to the mysterious stranger who apparently offers him the answer to all his problems? Haunted by the failures and betrayals of the past and his hopes for the future Thomas finds himself journeying to The Last Wilderness, a place where he must face up to whom he is and what he is.

The new play is the latest site-specific work from North East theatre company Changeling Productions, who are renowned for creating unique work in unusual places throughout the UK and Europe. Previous projects have included performances on climbing walls (Elevation), swimming pools (Three Miles Away), housing estates (Transfusion) and Bishop Auckland Castle (The Painter & The Patriarch). Recently the company devised Songlines, a ballad that was created and sung by people in towns and villages from Barrow to Hartlepool.

The Harehope Quarry Project, in County Durham, is an eco-project that explores sustainable living, where once they quarried the unique and world-famous Frosterley Marble. The Harehope Quarry Project has worked to restore areas of the quarry giving it a new function and providing facilities for visitors.

The Last Wilderness plays 10-12 September at 7pm and tickets are priced at £8 (£6 concessions), available on the door or by calling 07733 580820. Each performance, which will have pre-show activities for children from 6pm, is an outdoor performance and will go ahead come rain or shine. Audience members are advised to come prepared for wet weather and to bring something to sit on, as well as a torch.

- by Jane Blagden

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