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World War Two troop carriers will transport the udience from scene to scene at a unique dramatic production of Nevil Shute’s Requiem for a Wren at Exbury Gardens early next month (June).
Exbury, as HMS Mastodon, was the planning headquarters for the D-Day landings (code-named Operation Overlord). Writer Nevil Shute was stationed here, designing weapons and surveillance devices.
His subsequent best-selling novel, Requiem for a Wren, a love story set in those times, has been turned into a play produced by Jenny Knowles to celebrate the 61st anniversary of D-Day and the 50th anniversary of Exbury opening to the public.
Requiem for A Wren tells the story of Leading Wren Janet Prentice, whose task was to service the guns on the landing craft moored in the Beaulieu River. Her story is woven into real happenings of the time:
testing of landing craft and tanks on nearby beaches, the shooting down of a lone German Junkers bomber with its mystery crew of seven in the grounds of Exbury and the days and nights spent loading supplies onto landing craft.
“I feel there was a real ‘Janet’ here who caught Nevil Shute’s eye,” said Jenny Knowles. “There was certainly a Junkers that was shot down in April 1944.”
The audience for the play on 3rd, 4th and 5th of June will watch the beginning of the play near Exbury House. They will move from these scenes to Lepe Beach on troop carriers, driving by the point where the burning Junkers engine crashed through a hedge.
They will watch the scenes at Lepe Beach from the troop carriers. Along the way the action will continue with briefings and historical detail on events linked to the novel.
“This will be a unique experience,” said Jenny Knowles. “Veterans are coming over from as far away as Canada and the USA to watch actors play their parts, in the place where they worked in 1944 to support the Allied invasion.”
Tickets can be booked on 023 8084 2190. For more information, please visit the Exbury Gardens website (see links below) |
