In 2009 Theatre Merchants were commissioned to create a show celebrating 700 years of the Duke of Northumberland’s family history. After extensive research, it was devised and then performed at the family house at Syon, whose occupants have played on the centre stage of politics throughout its history.
The audience is led on a journey through family history, 5 characters in 5 different eras. In The State Dining Room a gramophone is playing. It is the 1930’s and the Queen Mother’s Mistress of the Wardrobe, the 8th Duchess is gossiping, glass in hand. As we move through the rooms we move back in time, specially commissioned live music
laying the scene in each room. We meet the 3rd Duchess, the 1st Duke, before coming across The Wizard Earl who was drawn to alchemy and implicated in the gunpowder plot. Finally we reach Harry Hotspur, immortalised by Shakespeare at a time of the height of the family powers, the making and breaking kings.
All of the characters are finally brought together at the end of this colourful and engaging production to sing a specially commissioned anthem ‘The Beating Heart Of England’ by Tim Laycock in celebration of this extraordinary family.
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