Introduction

The Children’s Castle was created by the Wild Night’s Young Company. The play was written to be a promenade performance based   around the history and heritage of Castle Drogo, a local National Trust property, and the plot involving many historical figures and events from the Castle’s past. Included in the performance was a short film piece describing the outbreak of World War 2, which was filmed on location at the Castle.

The project has been planned and managed by all the young people including everything from directing to acting in the performance.

The story is based around 4 evacuees as they explore Castle Drogo and begin to imagine how it must have been like to live there many years ago. Their stories follow a young maid called Anne, who falls in love with a local stonemason, Peter. At the same time, Lutyens is having troubles with the design changes and concerns about the leaky roof arise from his apprentice, Robert. Two evacuees learn of their brother’s death and their tales take a sinister turn deciding the fate of Anne and Peter.

The Children’s Castle is a play made with Castle Drogo in mind and explores the heritage and history of the building and it’s relationship with Drewsteignton. We also explore the feelings of the evacuees who came to the Castle from London .

The play took place around the grounds of the castle guided by one of the characters from the play. Different scenes took place around different areas of the garden as the audience followed the action.

The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery fund and was greatly helped by the National Trust.