Leith Hill pageant: Whose green and pleasant land?
On Sunday 4 October, join us at Leith Hill Place for a free community-centred celebration of place, people and possibility, combining music, drama, movement and spoken word, performed and brought to life by the people from Dorking and across the Surrey Hills.
Vaughan Williams' pageant
In 1938, an audience gathered in the grounds of Milton Court, the Elizabethan manor house just outside Dorking. To a fanfare of trumpets, a narrator entered and the performance of England’s Pleasant Land began. This community pageant was created by local writer E. M. Forster and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Through music, performance and spectacle, it explored the story of England’s rural landscape across a thousand years of history.
Our pageant
Sunday 4 October
Morning session: Community performances from 11am, followed by the pageant at 12pm
Afternoon session: Pageant at 2.30pm, followed by community performances
Nearly ninety years later, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? revisits many of the same questions for a new century.
This is not a revival or adaptation of Forster and Vaughan Williams’ original work. Instead, it is an entirely new bold community-created performance that responds to contemporary issues, experiences and voices, asking what land, landscape and belonging mean today.
From ancient common land to the housing crisis, from questions of access and ownership to stewardship and environmental responsibility, the project explores who shapes our countryside, who benefits from it, who feels welcome within it, and what kind of future we want to create together.
Created by theatre company Damn Cheek Productions in partnership with the National Trust, this pageant-performance brings together local residents, community groups, theatre-makers, choirs, musicians and storytellers.
Oral histories gathered from throughout the Surrey Hills sit alongside live music led by Maya McCourt, contemporary electronic composition by Jack Kingslake, a brand new script by Tony Earnshaw and newly commissioned spoken word by Rosie May Jones.
Leith Hill Place will also be open from 11am-4pm offering a final chance this year to see the exhibitions on display, meet the artists in residence or just enjoy a cream tea on the terrace overlooking the weald.
So, please do join us for this free community pageant. Everyone's very welcome. Booking is strongly recommended.
You might also be interested in:
History of Leith Hill Place
Discover the history of Leith Hill Place in the Surrey Hills. The house was once home to the Wedgwood family and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The house at Leith Hill Place
** PLEASE NOTE: Leith Hill Place will be open every weekend from Sat 6 June until Sun 27 September, 11am-4pm. As the childhood home of one of England’s greatest composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams and often visited by Charles Darwin, it's a welcoming home and a place of inspiration, discovery and creativity. Find out more about Leith Hill Place and what's coming up this summer.
Enclosure at Leith Hill Place
Explore how our rural landscape has been shaped, fought over, and accessed across the centuries with our new programme, Enclosure, at Leith Hill Place. Discover more about belonging, displacement, and access in the Surrey Hills through exhibitions, events and performances.
