Summer Festival Dates For Hereward Show
Hurray! The Bury Arts Festival brochure 2018 is now out and our Hereward show is confirmed on page 23. Even if the photograph they've used is from our previous show there in 2016!
The exciting new Ely Folk Festival advance brochure makes it all about the poet. "NEW FOR 2018. A Very English resistance: The True Story of Hereward The Wake . This new narrative from poet Gareth Calway celebrates Hereward's underdoggéd routing of the Normans, from the Siege of Ely and the Sack of Peterborough Abbey to his real-life Robin Hood resistance in the greenwoods of Northamptonshire."
But, with due respect to folk balladeer Andy and harp-rocking Vanessa, The Penland Phezants are nothing if not a team. Our latest press release (February 2018) makes the point. Even if Gareth is the only Phezant remotely interested in football!
"The Phezants are a team of proven talents from different fields. They have a unique pitch. They have someone up front called 'Vardy.' And they will be playing for ninety minutes in two of the region's nationally-acclaimed festivals later this year.
No. The Penland Phezants are not a football team. They are a Norfolk/Cambridgeshire folk-storytelling band and both Bury Arts Festival and Ely Folk Festivals are hosting their 2018 Hereward the Wake show. The Phezants' documentary and musical narrative explores one of England's most exciting stories, that post-1066 sudden death mis-match between Normans and Saxons that went into extra time after the Norman invasion. The Phezants' 90 minute thriller occupies an extended Saturday afternoon slot in Ely in July and a Wednesday night fixture in Bury in May.
The ambitious project combines storytelling, history, drama, magic, folklore and folk ballads in celebration of Hereward the Wake's very English Resistance to the Norman conquest in the fens and forests of the East of England nearly 1000 years ago. In that 5 year battle between invading army and guerrilla resistance Hereward's giantkillers took the Normans all the way. Including replays at Bourne, Ely, Peterborough, across Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and the ancient fens and woodlands in between. In the Penland Phezants well-researched version there is even a final surprise blow struck at King's Lynn.
It's a team effort from start to finish. The dramatic narrative has been specially penned and will be brought alive by poet Gareth Calway; there are crowd-stirring sing-along ballads composed and performed by folk musician Andy Wall and atmospheric harp music composed and played by Vanessa Wood-Davies, Their story packs in all the thrills and spills of the historical decider. There is history, tragedy, comedy, farce, romance and above all humanity.
All the phases of Hereward's heroic exploits, as recorded by contemporary and admiring monks at a cataclysmic moment in English history, are celebrated as the underdogs attempt to hold off the world beaters against all the odds - Hereward's home advantage up against William the Conqueror's vastly superior numbers. It may be attack versus defence for much of the mis-match but Hereward's brilliant counterattacks assure there are goals and lead changes galore from the underdogs.
And 'Vardy"? Well, that's from the Latin "Herewardi Saxonis." Hereward the Saxon. "
"Hereward the Wake: A Very English Resistance." At Bury St Edmunds Arts Festival May 23; Ely Folk Festival July 14.