I am a “come lately” playwright. I have been writing all my life but suddenly during lockdown three plays emerged in quick succession. We staged the first “One Night” in Birmingham so I can’t be that awful and the second play “Up In The Blue” had a big successful enhanced reading here in my village and in London. The third “Swing! Swing! Admiral Byng!” we hope to premiere this year on May 1st in London at the Playground Theatre in Latimer Road.
I wrote it with the actor Peter Tate in mind. He wasn’t sure if it would work but then he read it and suddenly said he wanted to play the part and put it on in the Playground Theatre.
And then the complication of putting it on became the struggle of the last year. But we are nearly there. I have a cast and a vision and we have raised nearly enough money through close friends to make it a reality but we are still £6000 short - the money I need to pay the last two actors in my cast of six.
I am lucky to have Peter Tate playing Admiral Byng
Chris Barritt has agreed to be Hutchens, Byng’s valet.
Merric Boyd is to play Captain Augustus Hervey Byng’s close and only friend
Corrina McDermott is to be Sarah Osborne Byng’s only sister and greatest defender.
James Fisher is to play Sailor Miles and Nicholas a young man who meets Byng on his last day
and Randy Smartnick will play Sailor Inch and also be my Assistant Director.
The Seventh member of my cast is only revealed when you come and see the play.
I have the help of Peter Bingemann the well-known TV and film designer with the setting and Helena Hipolito will run the show and also create the projections. Merric, James, Corrina and Randy have worked with me on my other theatre projects and the team have supported the work I have done on my new plays. It is a very experienced and passionate team.
The set has been kindly sponsored and I have spent a long time in the charity shops finding the props we need, but any extra money raised over the £6000 will help with costumes and making the evening a more enriching and immersive experience.
This has become a big deal for me. I am in my mid-seventies and frankly probably wont attempt something like this ever again but if you don’t try you don’t succeed. The six performers in the cast are extraordinarily talented and all have thrown themselves into this project – already learning their lines even though we still need to raise the full budget. I am however working directing and producing for free what is a Playground Theatre production and am happy with that – it’s the guys on stage who need the reward and mine is to see this whole project become a reality.
My plays develop contemporary themes in historic settings and this drama is no exception:
The trial and execution of Admiral Byng was one of the more disgraceful miscarriages of justice in the annals of the Royal Navy even by the standards of the time. Byng was the luckless scapegoat for the inadequacy of the navy and its commanders, a vacillating and neurotic British government and a mob, whipped to a frenzy by political pamphleteers. (Michael Scott)
People continue to be punished and scapegoated through miscarriages of justice when the men and women who control their lives and fate should be punished not them.
But the driving idea for me was to write a play about a man who knows to the second when he will die. And Byng was that man - executed with naval precision at 12pm on Monday March 14th 1757.
The narrative plays out on the last two days of Jack Byng’s life, knowing he will be shot on the quarterdeck on the final day. The action is set in the master cabin of the Monarch, a “first rate” ship of the line, on the quay of Plymouth dock and outside a nearby Inn. And it’s not a history play.
It is a play about friendship, navy life, betrayal, scapegoating and of one man, Byng, finding peace to die with dignity, knowing his punishment is unjust and believing that history will find him innocent of any fault. So far it hasn’t.
The main characters are Byng and his long-time servant and valet Hutchens. Byng comes to terms with his fate, opens up to Hutchens and finds friendship and warmth in his final hours – Hutchens gives him and the audience a picture of naval life, and the dangers of fighting when ships engage in battle. The two create a bond that becomes stronger as Byng’s final minutes pass, and they both discover depths in the other that might never have emerged if fate hadn’t decided on the scapegoating of Byng and his inevitable death.
The supporting cast is Captain Augustus Hervey one of Byng’s fiercest supporters and friend, and Byng’s sister Sarah Osborne. Hervey was known as the ‘Naval Casanova’ and much later became the Earl of Bristol. Sarah had eleven brothers, most of whom died young and when Byng was shot, she was left with none. Both Sarah and Hervey did everything in their power to have Byng pardoned but despite all their efforts they discover they were powerless. The remaining characters are two sailors who sing the ballads sung on the streets at the time which were an important part of the hysteria and public outcry that led to Byng being court martialled. The public were quite literally baying for blood. The final character, who visits Byng in a dream, is Monsieur Arouet, who knew Byng and together with his friend the Count De Richelieu, believed him to be unjustly treated and that his execution was a travesty.
Historical background:
Byng was prosecuted by Lord Newcastle, Henry Fox and Admiral Anson for cowardice after the loss of Minorca and Byng’s inconclusive battle with the French fleet. He was court martialled, acquitted of cowardice but found guilty of “not doing his utmost” – the penalty for which at the time was death (after Byng’s execution the naval law was altered to avoid such a sentence).
The ‘powers-that-be’ wanted to cover up the mishandling of their attempt to prevent their valued naval base, Port Mahon in Minorca, falling to the French. They did too little too late and Minorca was already lost when they sent Byng with a squadron of inadequate ships to engage the new French fleet. The loss of Minorca sent the public into uproar. A scapegoat was needed so they chose Byng to take the fall for them. His death was supposed to close the matter. It hasn’t.