A WEEKEND visit to Saddleworth was more nostalgic for one pair than most, more than a decade since writing an award-winning Rushcart play.
Deborah “Deb” McAndrew and Conrad Nelson were among the thousands of visitors who descended on the villages for the festival, as dozens of performers lined up to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The event, one of two in the entirety of the UK, saw Morris dancers from across the country gather to show off their skills and meet up en-masse, all while dragging a 16ft tall cart from village to village behind them.
To Deb and Conrad, the Saddleworth Rushcart is a tradition that has long been close to their hearts, having first visited in 2011 all the way from Halifax.
And three years later, it would inspire Deb to put pen to paper on one of her most acclaimed – and expensive – performances, ‘An August Bank Holiday Lark.’
“I’m a writer, and we worked together in a company called Northern Broadsides,” she told the Saddleworth Independent.
“Back in 2011, when we first came to watch the Rushcart, it was led by a man called Barry Rutter, and he commissioned me t write a play to commemorate the First World War in 2014.
“He gave me the title, An August Bank Holiday Lark, and he wanted it to be about the war and he wanted it to have folk dancing in it.
“In the end, it showed the devastation of a village that was affected by the First World War, because obviously a lot of dancers who danced in the Rushcart never came home.
“It’s a very moving story about the Lancashire regiments and their connection to the Gallipoli campaign.”
Taking its title from a line in Philip Larkin’s poem ‘MCMXIV’, the play follows the impact of the First World War on the fictional countryside village of Greenmill.
With all the village folk gearing up for their Wakes Week Rushcart Festival, the prospect of a looming war feels far removed from their summer of dancing and drinking.
But as the threat of conflict grows ever-closer, the townsfolk must one by one learn to cope with the loss and devastation of war – and perhaps find reasons for hope along the way.
Originally debuting at the New Vic, Newcastle, before making the journey to Oldham Coliseum, the show won first place for ‘Best New Play’ at the 2014 UK Theatre Awards.
While its heartwarming storyline was of great help, Deb and Conrad agreed it was all down to their talented cast of real-life Morris dancers.
The team were directed by Conrad himself, who learned Morris dancing especially for the job by embedding himself with the Saddleworth Morris Men.
“I thought, ‘We don’t want so sit on the outside looking in, we may as well get in there and do it’,” he said.
“We took one of the basic dances from Saddleworth and bastardised it, basically, within the tutelage of Eddie Warren, who still dances with the Saddleworth Morris Men.
“We did a lot of other folk dances that we put into the mixture of how we did it. It was a professional cast of Morris dancers.”
“The village of Greenmill is fictitious, but I took inspiration from the Saddleworth villages, as well as Helmshaw, up towards Preston way,” Deb added. “The village in the play has got one foot on the moor, and one foot out.
“It was a big cast, of eight men and four women. The eight men would be dancing and would fill all the roles, and the four women all had to be musicians. The actors learned the dancing pretty well, and when they performed it, they were totally on it.
“They absolutely loved it.”
While there is little chance of An August Bank Holiday Lark coming back to theatres any time soon – “It’s really expensive!” – Deb and Conrad said they were proud to have done their part to promote Morris dancing to a new generation of audiences.
“Morris dancing is a bit of a joke, isn’t it?” Deb continued. “People make fun of it, or they critique it as some sort of flakey, beardey, blokey type of thing, but actually the play was very respectful towards it – and that’s a wonderful thing.
“It was one of the most popular shows we’ve ever done, though we can’t afford to do it again. The resonance for a lot of people was huge.
“People did love it, but the dancing and the Morris tradition within it was treated with love and respect, and I think that’s why they appreciated it as well. It wasn’t the butt of any jokes.
“Morris dancing was the beating heart of the play. It was a good piece, and we’re really, really proud of the whole tradition.”
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