Their Finest Hour began its theatrical journey back in March 2019 as we workshopped our way through the rehearsal process.
The writer Steve Darlow is one of the most knowledgeable and respected experts on the RAF campaigns of the Second World War and has met and interviewed a large number of the veterans featured in the play, whose words inspired him to write Their Finest Hour. Together with Director Joe Malyan, who has such an incredible enthusiasm for the subject matter and gave such energy to Their Finest Hour, along with our fantastic Cast and Production Team, the whole thing was imagined beautifully.
Director Joe Malyan: ‘When Steve first showed me the script, he emphasised the importance of telling the emotional story of the people behind the text. This is not a history play, he told me. It is not about dates, times and figures. I soon discovered that it is a play about real people. Real moments. Real memories. Real tragedy. Real joy and everything else in between. I will be forever grateful to Steve throughout the process, his enthusiasm for the piece has been invaluable, constantly reassuring me that my ‘conceptual’ staging works, and does the piece justice. This is an exceptionally challenging production, with a cast of 9 portraying over 100 roles, each with their own piece of history to tell. Our beautiful cast brought so many wonderful ideas to the piece and they deserve as much credit as I do with the end result.’
Producer Auriole: ‘These are not just wartime anecdotes we are telling, but real human stories of epic proportions. Extraordinary endeavours performed by ordinary people, woven through with the music and poetry of the time. Our Parent’s, Grand Parent’s and Great Grand Parent’s generation, all stood together when it was most needed. The look and feel of the production was incredibly important, it needed to draw the audience in to the period, so the use of props and costumes coupled with an amazing sound and lighting design, by our team of Joe Malyan, Lyndon Baines, Anne Thomson, Viv Baines and Tim Cumper, made it pretty special.’