The Nynehead News, under the leadership of Jenny Dodd, promoted the idea of a Community Play to celebrate 2006 as being the 200th Birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Substantial funds were raised from Arts Council England, a grant from the National Lottery under their Awards for All scheme along with other contributions from The Theatre Locality Plan and Taunton Deane Borough Council.
As a result, Nynehead produced the only Community Event celebrating Brunel's 200th birthday in the whole of Somerset. If you missed it, HERE IS A SLIDESHOW!
This is Nynehead's second such production, following "Building Up Steam" in 2001 - celebrating the building of the canal through Nynehead - and its subsequent demise due to the arrival of Mr. Brunel's railway.
Nynehead consists of five quite separate communities with a combined population of only 350, including children. It has no shop, post office or pub, the usual focal points of small communities and for this reason alone it is remarkable in that it has been awarded Village of The Year status twice in the last three years.
With funding in place Actiontrack Production Co Ltd. under the directorship of Nick Brace, was appointed to take on the challenge of getting it all together. Whilst Shaun Jackson researched and produced a script, Actiontrack collaborated with seven local junior schools and encouraged the children to develop ideas that could be incorporated.
The production was a comedy based upon Brunel's life - with a liberal degree of poetic licence, and was entitled
A Suspension of Disbelief - (Unabridged)
It was performed in the splendid grounds of, and with the kind permission of Nynehead Court, on Friday 26th May.The afternoon commenced with music from the superb Tone Valley Jazz Band and their tempo set the mood for everything that followed. Stalls with Strawberries, Herbs, Plants, a Book Stall, Arts & Craft, Tombolas & Raffles - together with Frog Racing, were available for all to enjoy.
Nynehead Club's bar and a Hog Roast were also there to keep everyone fed and watered!.
An auction chaired by John Lewin raised funds for the community and having successfully completed this task John introduced William Sanford to open the main event.
It would be impossible to name all who deserved thanks for making this such an enjoyable day, but nothing would have happened without Actiontrack Performance Co and their Artistic Director Nick Brace together with writer & poet Shaun Jackson. Our thanks also to the Directors and management of Nynehead Court for their kind permission to use their delightful grounds and other facilities. The staff of Nynehead Court were helpful & positive throughout and whilst it would be impossible to name everyone our thanks go out to all.
It was also lovely to see Nynehead Court residents Mrs Rosa Clark & Mr Harold Ratsy taking the parts of Mr & Mrs Brunel Snr. who together with the many children from our local schools helped make the production a great success.
Where to stop?
There are so many who helped in all sorts of ways - Richard Fox & Roger Eckersley in distributing publicity & press releases. Richard Huish College for taking lots of video to be incorporated in their own DVD about Brunel. John Burgess recorded many conversations with residents, organisers & players alike & his work will be broadcast on BBC radio a little later in the year. David Manners took a vast number of photographs which will be available for viewing & purchase.
And not forgetting our own residents who organised, acted and generally pulled together. Special thanks to Henk van de Hoef whose organising skills as our site director played a vital part.
The Nynehead residents taking part included Kathy & Lizzy Boyd, Rosemary Lea, Gilly Binding, Mervyn Hooper, Allan Howe, Alan Ketley, Denis Dodd & myself. Ron & Christian Boyd also worked hard in the props department!
From surrounding areas we were joined by David Wood as Mr Brunel, Simon Bartlett as Spenser Braithwaite, Richard Fox as 'The Commentator' (and props.), Nick Cripps as Phillip Fothergill (also props.) and Graham Mason as Mr. Babbage.
Our previous community play 'Building Up Steam', in 2001, resulted in many of Nynehead's residents forming bonds that have lasted throughout. I am sure than not only have those old bonds been reinforced, but that many new ones have been formed. It was particularly nice to see so many of the cast coming from our surrounding areas & hopefully we will see these new friendships continue well into the future
Sadly Jenny Dodd, who had initiated the whole project many months ago and had raised the funds that made it all possible, passed away only a few days before. Our sympathy goes out to Denis & all of their family & friends. Jenny will be sadly missed in our community, but we were all absolutely certain that she would have wanted the show to go on -
So it did!
Mike Briginshaw
Editor
Nynehead News
For more information contact:
Mike Briginshaw 01823 461627 - email mike@nynehead.plus.com
or
Alan Ketley 01823 662249 - email alan.ketley@tiscali.co.uk