Fleecehold is off to the Camden Fringe but it's coming to Folkestone first!
I hope you’re having a great weekend.
I wanted to let you know that my play Fleecehold is off to the Camden Fringe but you can see a preview at Folkestone’s The Green Room at The Grand first.
The play is a dark political comedy based on the true story of three amazing women, founders of the National Leasehold Campaign (NLC), who battled against developers and freeholders to bring about leasehold reform.
Though there’s nothing funny about being trapped in a leasehold property and being at the mercy of often faceless greedy freeholders, it’s such a ridiculous system hanging over from feudal times that it lends itself to an almost panto-style comedy with a nod to one of my favourite films The Big Short. So if you come, please bring your best booing and hissing voices.
It’s on at The Green Room at Folkestone’s The Grand on Friday, July 7 for a dress rehearsal (tickets are cheaper) and on Saturday, July 8 when the founders of the NLC Katie Kendrick, Jo Darbyshire and Cath Williams will doing a Q&A about their experiences and providing advice to any trapped leaseholders.
We’re really pleased to be able to perform at The Grand as it’s such an iconic building and scene of many scandalous leasehold dealings you can read about here.
It’s also very exciting to be part of the Camden Fringe and have the play performed at The Little Angel Theatre, famous for its puppet shows and is a very apt venue considering the subject matter. Katie, Jo and Cath will also be coming along the performance in London on Saturday, August 12 to do a Q&A with the audience.
After the Government repeatedly promised leasehold reforms for the last five years , I believed the play would no longer be relevant after the promised changes became law - due this autumn.
Sadly though, just four days ago, the Tory Government performed a massive U-turn on the promised reforms. Apparently, Rishi Sunak put a stop to the full scale reform Michael Gove was promising and instead approved a very watered down version.
When 20 per cent of your donors are from building companies, it’s hardly surprising this happened. But that doesn’t make it any less appalling that the Conservative Party are so transparently willing stop reform to please the few rather than the estimated 9 million people living in leasehold properties.
The news was reported in various media including the right-leaning The Spectator which criticised the Government for losing millions of votes by going back on its promises to leaseholders. However, perhaps the Tories realise their arses will be whipped in the General Election, so why not look after their donors’ vested interests while you still can?
We have an amazing cast if six actors and I can’t wait to share more about them in my next post.
If you’d like to come and see the play at The Green Room, Folkestone, click here or to see the play at Camden Fringe please click here .
Thank you for reading!