Medieval Mayhem with the cast of A Knight’s Tale - A New Musical in Rehearsals
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic.
A Knight’s Tale is a 2001 movie starring Heath Ledger and Paul Bettany, a comedy action film full of swash, buckle, classic rock tunes and some dubious historical accuracy. It has gained something of a cult following over the years and it’s a little surprising that it has taken until now for a stage adaptation to be developed.
But good things come to those who wait and the musical (of course it’s a musical!) version of A Knight’s Tale will open in April at Manchester’s Opera House. The cast includes Emily Benjamin (Kate), Max Bennettt (Chaucer), Emile Ruddock (Roland), Oliver Tompsett (Count Adhemar), Eva Scott (What) and Andrew Coshan as our hero, William Thatcher. Rehearsals are well underway and I set off on a quest of my own, a perilous journey (Northern Line – shudder!) from South East to North London to see how they’re getting on.
Producer Tristan Baker welcomed us to the rehearsal room. The company is four weeks into rehearsals with one week to go before they head into two weeks of tech before performances start in Manchester on 11th April. He talked a little about the transition from screen to stage, saying:
“The film is an incredibly theatrical piece anyway. It was one of the first films, if not the first, to have that anachronistic use of pop songs, putting modern day songs against the story of the film’s setting, so it’s inherently theatrical!
Our driving force from the film and Brona C Titley’s script, and what you’ll see today, is that we just wanted to have fun! It’s an incredibly entertaining story but also a beautiful one, asking can someone change their stars? All the way along we’ve wanted to bring joy and entertainment to audiences”.
Director Rachel Kavanaugh introduced two musical numbers, also setting the scene for the show and introducing some key characters:
“It’s 1372(ish!). It’s a time of jousting and people being put in the stocks. William Thatcher is a Squire whose friends Roland and What have persuaded him to pose as a knight, known as Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein. His armour is made or repaired by Kate and also in their gang is the father of English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer (why not?!). One of Chaucer’s many talents is that he can see and hear the audience! In the first number William is about to joust, facing the mysterious Colville, who is also in disguise (if you pay attention, you’ll discover who he is!), and also his nemesis Count Adhemar”.
Producer Tristan said at the start of the afternoon that everybody working on the show wanted to have fun. This is instantly obvious from the cast – they’re clearly loving every minute of bringing this very silly and hugely entertaining show to the stage. Everybody in the room is grinning from ear to ear and it’s totally infectious! There’s so much going on with slick choreography, distinctive and larger than life characters (watch out for Ryan Pidgen as “Man in Stocks”!) and, oh yes, jousting!
Although A Knight’s Tale is still in rehearsals and the cast was performing without costumes, sets and the full range of props, the energy is off the scale and the preview did give us a clue as to how those jousting sequences are going to be brought to the stage. To see the full picture, get yourself to the Manchester Opera House!
A Knight’s Tale runs at the Manchester Opera House from 11th April to 10th May. Find out more about the show and book here.
