On Saturday 18 October at 8pm, Hotbuckle Theatre Company makes a welcome return to Down Arts Centre with its new theatrical adaptation of Jane Austen’s most personal novel, Persuasion.
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Musicians Tom McFarland and Fil Campbell.[/caption]
On Sunday 19 October at 3pm, audiences have the opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of traditional and original songs with Fil Campbell and Tom McFarland.
“There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers.”
Beautifully romantic, touchingly funny and often unbearably poignant, Austen’s most personal novel, Persuasion, is brought to the stage.
Once upon a time, Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth were hopelessly in love. Persuaded by her family that he is not of her standing, she reluctantly ends their engagement and he leaves for the sea, his heart broken. Anne soon realises her mistake and spends the next eight years as the ignored middle child of a spendthrift father, quietly fading into the background and forever regretting her decision.
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Jane Austen’s Persausion.[/caption]
Then Wentworth returns. Having made his fortune, the now wealthy Captain Wentworth comes to seek a wife; a wife with strength of mind and a resolute character. Treating Anne with cold indifference, she can only watch with aching heart as he courts another. Will he ever forgive her? Following on from the success of previous adaptations (David Copperfield, Les Miserables and Great Expectations), the Regency world explodes into life with Hotbuckle’s trademark ensemble style.
On Sunday 19 October, County Fermanagh Singer/songwriter Fil Campbell and her percussionist husband Tom McFarland make a welcome return to Downpatrick, where they used to be a regular part of the old Downpatrick Folk Club.
Fil has been a part of the Irish music industry all her life. Growing up in Belleek, Fermanagh, she was raised on the folk songs that were popular in that area and spent her childhood immersed in music. After several years of touring and performing her own material mixed with traditional songs, Fil returned to her roots in 2005 for a multi media project, Songbirds, which profiled the lives of women singers in Ireland who had recorded the popular folk songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Currently working on her seventh studio album, Fil has recorded both traditional, contemporary and original material on her previous six recordings. Fil and Tom will play and sing a mixture of traditional and original songs accompanied by guitar and percussion, including several new songs from the new album, as well as songs from their back catalogue.
To purchase tickets (£12 / £10) and for further information on any Down Arts Centre events, please contact the box office on 028 4461 0747 or visit:
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