Ring of Stones Delights the Edinburgh Fringe public.
"Forget the old saying - this is one plague you should make a point of catching!"
So said The Edinburgh Guide as an opener to one of several 4 star reviews of The Ring of Stones. You can read all our flattering reviews on this site. But more importantly the Edinburgh Fringe public gave the show a massive thumbs up with average audiences of 115 (that's 100 more than the daily average at a fringe show) and dozens and dozens of extremely flattering and totally positive reviews. You can read a selection of audience reviews on the right of this page.
"....the history comes alive."
"top notch."
"Spellbinding!"
".... the excellent choral work was a memorable feature of this production."
"...sweepingly orchestral... a true labour of love"
"You've got to catch it."
"...an extremely accomplished performance. ...slick choral work and well-rehearsed harmonies"
"... it cannot be denied you will leave feeling uplifted and even a little bit more knowledgeable about just what went on back in 1665."
What is The Ring of Stones?
The Ring of Stones is a modern large-scale stage musical. It is a stunningly dramatic retelling of the true story of the plague village of Eyam where, in 1665-66, almost an entire village population sacrificed their lives to prevent infecting their neighbours with the deadliest of all known killers – Bubonic Plague.
In its original form, The Ring of Stones was a 3 hour long, fully sung through modern opera with a full 56 piece orchestral backing and a cast of more than 70. It played for a week at Manchester’s Dancehouse Theatre in 1999 and again at The Lyric Theatre of Salford’s Lowry Centre in 2000 where it was performed on both occasions by Salford Charter Players.
The new production was conceived and written in 2009. It offers a completely new format for the show. Whilst retaining the orchestral backing the show has been completely re-designed to run in just over 90 minutes by a cast of 19 actors with minimal set and costume. This has been achieved by careful reduction and editing of content and by the addition of a spoken narrative to drive the story. The effect is a much pacier and more accessible piece of drama borrowing from both the story-telling and documentary genres whilst simultaneously retaining the massively impressive modern opera elements. The overall effect is simply spell-binding.
Now the boring bits
The Ring of Stones was written by Eddie Brierley and Peter Robinson with orchestrations and additional material by Arthur Connett. The new production was designed and written by Peter Robinson with much help and encouragement from the current cast and production team. t-Chi Productions is the company of players formed out of Salford Charter Players to tour the new production around venues in the North West of England during 2010-11. The aim is to widen public appeal for The Ring of Stones and at the same time to raise money and awareness for the wounded servicemen’s charity – ‘Help for Heroes’.
The Ring of Stones. Copyright ©1999,2000,2010. Brierley/Robinson Music. All Rights Reserved. No part of these recordings may be reproduced, performed or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
However...
We welcome enquiries from all parties interested in producing “The Ring of Stones”. Contact us in the first instance through this web site.
Next page: The Village of Eyam