A theatre company may not be an obvious member of BALH but the The Sarah Siddons Fan Club Theatre Company has been a member for many years. SSFC is a site-specific company, in that it produces new work based on historic content and performs in the place where the action actually happened. This usually means performing outside – but it does save on scenery as historic remains act as the backdrop for the shows. Our main ‘theatre’ of operations is the remains of the medieval town of Southampton and our first show took place in 1986, this was a ghost walk, The Leper’s Day Out, raising funds for the mayor’s charity and was supposed to be a one-off event. We invited people to turn up and make a donation at the end, when we found 400 people waiting for us at the Bargate we thought we might be on to something. We decided to become a little more formal and to try out a summer show, ticketed of course, this show was based on Jane Austen’s time in Southampton and was called Taking The Flounce. At that point our little troupe had no name so we decided to call ourselves after Jane Austen’s favourite actress, Sarah Siddons another former resident of Southampton, and the Fan Club was born. We were still somewhat unsure if the group had a future, but as we still perform to sell out audiences, we must be doing something right. Our group is made up of historians and local history enthusiasts who also love drama and to perform. We have three core productions a year, our summer show, Halloween, and Xmas ghost walks, the latter telling the more gory and unsavoury stories from Southampton’s past. These shows are usually perambulations moving the audience around the old town as the story unfolds. There is a central character who leads the audience and sets the context for show and the scenes that will unfold. We do at times venture outside of Southampton mainly to other venues in Hampshire from Beaulieu, to Milestones, Eastleigh to Hamble. Our plays are sometimes commissions and we have performed at Tudor House Museum, Hilliers Garden, God’s House Tower among many other historic venues, telling the history of those places in dramatic form. Anniversaries are another big inspiration and the story of Titanic, votes for women, D-Day and the centenary of powered flight have all provided inspiration. We quite often perform in historic churches most recently for the 400th anniversary of Pear Tree Church and the delayed 950th anniversary of St Michael’s church, the oldest building in Southampton.

Covid of course meant that we could not perform in the traditional way, we had already had some experience of filming – for the BBC documentary on Titanic and as part of the national commemoration of the 600th Anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. We had been due to perform at Peartree for its 400th anniversary telling the story of the local cabin boy Richard Parker, whose fate changed English law. We managed instead, within the restrictions, to produce a film The Sad Tale of Richard Parker. The same year and restrictions also ruined lots of plans to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of The Mayflower and we managed to turn our show into another film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to America the restrictions during that filming were even more challenging, we had to be outside, no more than 3 people and one of those was the cameraman of course. As things started to improve, we made a partnership with The United Voices of Africa who wanted to work with us on telling the early history of black people in Southampton, that led the film Six Characters in Search of a History and our return to the streets with Bought, we also worked on a film telling the story of King Lobengula and Cecil Rhodes The Chameleon and the Fly. The films can all be seen on our You Tube channel and have been very well received thanks to the magic of the film-maker James Henderson. We were also invited down to the Titchfield Abbey for the Elizabeth ‘Earl of Southampton’s Fayre’ where we took on the roles of travelling players commissioned to produce a piece of drama about Sir Bevis of Hamtun which included audience participation and had to appear to be unintentionally bad – it takes some skill to make something look appalling and clever at the same time!

Once we have decided on our projects for the year, the first step is the historic research using primary and secondary sources searching for stories and characters that can form the basis of a piece of theatre. Once the research is completed a directorial line has to be decided upon, we want the play to portray the history as closely as possible but there will have to be compromises. In more modern pieces we can use reported speech but the further back in history more creativity is required without undermining what the research has shown us. The lead character has to be chosen, in a recent ghost walk based upon stories from Victorian penny dreadfuls, a reporter was the obvious choice. For the spa town Mrs Austen trying to find suitable husbands for her daughters gave a drive to the action. In Bought we decided to focus on the late Georgian period, beginning with Ellen and William Craft, escaped American slaves who had come to Southampton as part of a lecture tour to raise awareness of the effects of the slave system, once their story had been told the characters then told the audience they were going to learn about stories from their own town. Having the backdrop of original buildings from the period helps to set the scene but costumes still have to be made. Colours used and design also contribute to the storytelling but in addition they have to be suitable for quick changes – which will be taking place on the street of course! We do give a talk now and then Behind the Scenes with Sarah Siddons telling our own story of run-ins with the police, dealing with drunks, being dragged in to make an appearance at a senior citizens Christmas party in the middle of a show and why ghosts are always fat! (In the cold layering costumes up keeps you from freezing!).

Our recent shows have been Bloody Royals for Halloween 2023 and Piss Pot Alley for Christmas and we are looking forward to collaborating with the history department of the University of Southampton to tell the story of the maritime community of the port in early modern England in 2024 and returning to the history of Jane Austen for her 250th anniversary in 2025. We are always pleased to hear from our audiences who often tell us they had no idea about a particular aspect of the history of their town or building and that they are going to do follow up reading and research after seeing one of our plays. And of course, that they have enjoyed and been entertained by the performance.

Watch some of our performances here:

The Sad Tale of Richard Parker - YouTube

Six Characters in Search of a History - YouTube

The Chameleon and The Fly - a tale of King Lobengula and Cecile Rhodes - YouTube

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to America - YouTube

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.