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Read Not Dead was launched in 1995 and brings actors, audiences and scholars together to explore and celebrate the plays performed in London and on its stages before 1642. The ground-rules are simple. Actors are given a script on a Sunday morning and work with a director to get the play up on its feet - with entrances and exits, token costume and music if needed. They present it, script in hand, to an audience at 16:00. These are not intended to be polished productions. However, there is a shared spirit of adventure and excitement for actors and audiences who sense that they might be uncovering a hidden gem. First published in 1634, The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck, A Strange Truth was first performed by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit playhouse in Drury Lane. The scene is England, in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, rules a country exhausted by civil strife. But his position is challenged by the mysterious Perkin Warbeck, who claims he is really Richard IV, one of the Yorkist princes committed to the Tower during the reign of Richard III and never seen again. Is Perkin ? or Richard ? really who he seems? Imposter or rightful king, Perkin sets out to claim the throne, backed by James IV of Scotland and a group of Irish followers. Ford's exceptional history play challenges the Tudor myth, by pitting the more calculating Henry against the compassionate but ultimately ineffectual Warbeck.