Northumberland is known as the county of castles, but it also has a plethora of magnificent county houses.  One such house, Seaton Delaval Hall, a stately home in the South East of the county, doesn’t seem like the natural location for an Autumn evening’s entertainment. But that was the challenge the National Trust at Seaton Delaval Hall commissioned us to achieve.   

Whilst the building is largely a ruin, the National Trust have been working hard to make it a “place of great theatricality, drama and mischief”.  Our production “The Unlocked Door” tapped into those ambitions.  We devised a series of performances that represented an element in the history of the hall: Sir John Vanbrugh designing the hall; a drag performance recreating the flamboyant ‘Gay Delavals’; the story of a servant caught up in the fire that destroyed the building; a dance that linked to the hall’s time as a prisoner-of-war camp; and an aerial show, encouraging us to look to the hall’s future.  The audience promenaded around the hall taking in each performance and ending in the Stables for a DJ set and drinks. 

We think the audience believed we had created exceptional and remarkable theatre in an unusual space!