Assembly Rooms from 2-25 Aug and then tour the UK until March 2014. Daily at 12.30 pm (Running time 1hr 10mins)
Following their sold-out national tour and critically acclaimed run of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Towns End Productions are set to return to the festival from 2-25 August to premiere their latest, We Will Be Free!, a new drama set around the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
Set in 1834 We Will Be Free follows the extraordinary true story of George and Betsy Loveless. He was a Methodist preacher and the leader of the six Dorsetshire farm labourers who were tried, convicted and condemned to harsh transportation by an oppressive Government for having the temerity to swear a secret oath and form a union to fight against a succession of wage cuts inflicted by the local landowner.
This vitally important story is told using the entertaining theatrical style developed through our production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists; through Andy Vine’s powerful political cartoons and animation; through puppetry and the exquisite musical arrangements by revered folk singer and squeezebox player John Kirkpatrick, of the songs and rallying hymns of the Dorset labouring classes that resound down the years.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
