Projects

By courtesy of Discover St. Austell Online 

Protest marches, blighted crops, starving inhabitants, shops looted, clashes with local militia. Sound familiar? Not a ravaged community in present-day Africa, but St Austell in 1847. The potato blight and soaring grain prices had devastated Cornwall and local clayworkers decided they could take no more. They gathered at the mines and clayworks and streamed down the new turnpike into St Austell. The militia and the coastguard marched to oppose them.

Several shops and businesses were looted and the day culminated in a stand-off outside the newly-opened Market House.
These and what followed are to be the basis of a community play commissioned by Restormel Arts and to be performed in the summer of 2013. The play will be written by Carl Grose, who has worked extensively with Kneehigh and is acquiring a growing international reputation. Working with Carl will be actor, director and film-maker Simon Harvey.
Planning for the production is in its very early stages, but Restormel Arts is anxious to enlist support, ideas and expertise from across the local community. We have already recruited a widely-representative planning group but want to involve any individual or group who would like to be involved.
If you are interested in taking part in the project, please send us an email or write to us.