"If you don't know what to die for, for what will you live?"

The Director's Vision for the Play

he story of the Oxford martyrs, the three bishops burnt alive on Broad Street almost 450 years ago, tends to elicit two popular responses. On the one hand it fascinates us: what on earth could be so enthralling, so central to these brilliant and powerful men that they would willingly embrace the flames of martyrdom, when the road to freedom had beckoned so eloquently? On the other we are not so much appalled as disinterested: who cares? Didn't this all take place when men and women were shrouded in religious faith, a world away from ours? Religious wars were two a penny and we are none the wiser. What does their story have to say to us today, when the church, once a major player, has been squeezed into the margins where to many its voice seems distorted and irrelevant amongst the others which clamour for our attention?

The Challenge

eneath the layers of history lies a human drama as gripping as any this country has ever seen. These men had families, hopes and dreams like any other. They paid taxes, their kids went to school. Yet they were caught up in a religious and political whirlwind to some extent of their own making. The play plots their journey around the edges of this maelstrom, where in some senses they seem to lose themselves and then into its very heart where through the flames, by the alchemy of grace they find themselves once more.

he play will open on Broad Street, on the site where Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were burnt. The two actors who begin our tale, are not in Tudor dress. Clearly the kebab van down the road, burning a different flesh, and the street lights place us in 2002. So these two men building a stake, invite us not into the world of the play, at least not yet. But they do draw us into the story. There is something sacramental in locating the play upon the spot where they died. For though it is not a re-enactment, the sense of continuity and the place itself with all its attendant spirits, is perhaps a gateway for the creative imagination. We pause here with them for a few minutes as we see a man tied to a stake and we consider the possibilities.

he street has been closed down by the Oxford City council for this period of the evening. The audience, approx. 330, are led by stewards over the road to the main gates of Trinity College. The driveway to Durham Quad is candle lit and it is there that we enter the world of the play.

Music and Choreography

s the audience take their seats 12 members of the cast will perform a piece which carries the essential elements of the drama in its movements. This will be choreographed by Sarah Morgan a professional contemporary dancer and its completion will signal the beginning of the play. The vocabulary and symmetry of the dance, and its accompanying music will be 16th century. It's a kind of a frontispiece to the play. Music will be a central element within the performance. Both original and period pieces will be employed to undergird the drama. This part of the vision is in the capable hands of William Robertson, who will conduct a five piece string ensemble, percussionist, organist and choir of Trinity college.

Style

he play itself is naturalistic in style, and will be acted in period costumes (RSC). Integral to the naturalism, will be an element of physical theatre where for example the actors themselves, become the corridors of power and intrigue. Percussion will be the main tool employed to move from one scene to another, where different actors will beat rhythms on the set to establish mood. Where possible, actors not engaged in set shifting, or percussion will sit on seats, benches visible to the audience. As an ensemble the cast will be required, where necessary to double or play incidental characters.

Above all the play tells the story of men and women under the extreme pressure of a particular time, and it is how they encounter their triumphs and tribulations, how they are affected and sometimes defeated which will drive the drama.