Open Air Theatre at Buckfast Abbey

Following on from last year’s lively adaptation of Godspell, Into the Light is a thought-provoking and beautifully written piece that will be performed at Buckfast Abbey from 7th -12th September by the Torbay-based Unleashed Theatre Company. Based on St John’s Gospel, it follows a group of refugees fleeing from Eastern Europe in the late 1930s at the start of the outbreak of the Second World War, who as they travel tell the ‘greatest story’ on Earth. For Unleashed Theatre Company, this piece has real significance as it takes them right back to their roots.

Martin Harris, the company’s artistic director, says: “It is great to be returning to the piece where in one sense Unleashed Theatre Company first began. This play was the very first project we ever produced 13 years ago. If you’d told me then that we would be doing community theatre in 2015 to the extent that we are now doing, I would never have believed you.

“We recently premiered a brand new musical for children called Timothy’s Song, also performing it at Buckfast Abbey’s Storytelling Festival at the beginning of July; Into the Light will be performed in the second week of September; and earlier in the year we were awarded funding to run a community drama group for homeless people and anyone in recovery from addiction, which we run every week in Torquay. In February 2016, we are presenting a gala performance of Under One Roof, a benefit production for Leonard Stocks Homeless Centre.”

Unleashed has always been about inclusion, engaging with the local community and presenting productions that genuinely have something really relevant to say no matter how shocking or edgy the subject. Although they class themselves as a Christian Theatre Company, their policy is of complete inclusion regardless of age, gender, race, disability or sexuality.

Martin continues: “In Into the Light, Murray Watts’ amazing script brings to life the Gospel of John with a real message of hope that everyone will be able to relate to. Setting it in this particular era where the Jewish people were particularly hounded out, persecuted and decimated in the Holocaust, gives it a current resonance with what is happening today with the persecution of Christians all around the world. Murray Watts’ script doesn’t hold back and yet brings to life with real humanity the ministry and final days of Jesus, but in a way that is so topical, accessible and painfully moving. We have assembled a cracking cast and this production really lends itself to the open air theatre space at Buckfast Abbey where it will be performed.”

Adults £11.00, under 18s £9.00 (unreserved). Seats available from 7.00pm, performance starts at 7.45pm.

Tickets are available from the Abbey Bookshop and Abbey Giftshop. For telephone bookings please call 01364 645506.