The Commotion Time

The Commotion Time is a story of a community fighting to save their traditions and identity in the face of tyrannical change. Set in the mid-16th century, a time of radical change as the Protestant Reformation tried to sweep Catholicism and Catholic practices from the face of England. The Western Rising was the most significant attempt by ordinary people to resist these changes and petition the young Edward VI to allow their faith practices to continue. 

Set in the Cornish village of Poundstock as the villagers work to fund and build a new Guildhall, this is a tale of community, resilience and the power and strength of the women of the time. With Henry VIII dead, the new king, at eleven years old, is controlled by the Duke of Somerset who seeks to impose Protestant practices on the country and effectively steal any remaining wealth, however small, of the community churches. The villagers resisted as best they could, hiding and mis-representing their remaining church silver and statues, but the imposition of the new order was strictly, and brutally, enforced.

The result of this imposition, the attempt to take away the traditions and practices of the common folk, was a series of uprisings against the new order. Eventually unsuccesful, and resulting in considerable loss of life, these uprisings bound the communities of Cornwall and Devon in their common desire to keep the faith in their own way.

This is a piece of community theatre in that only seven professional actors are in the cast with the choir and villagers all local amateurs - everyone is from the South West. The story is strong and compelling and the music (Ben Sutcliffe) provides a beautiful soundscape to the show with some excellent choral singing that raised goosebumps. Characters are well rounded and credibly delivered, you really feel you get to know and care for these people and their plight - even for John Grenville, the local enforcer who is caught between two loyalties, as he says "I am a second son, with three daughters, I do as I'm told".

This is powerful drama, I learned a lot about the county I now call home and saw a period of history from a different side to that portrayed as "English History" - this was not some violent rabble coming up from the West to overthrow the King, it was a community pushed too far by unjust and immoral overlords.

Deeply moving, funny, clever, informative and powerfully theatrical - what more could one want of an evening at the theatre - Sarah Dickenson has written something really quite special here and director Martin Berry has realised an impressively engaging production. Community theatre at its best...