A HIGHWAYMAN will be raising cash for charity in Warwick this summer.
Slaughterhouse Players will be staging Stand and Deliver -a light-hearted re-enactment of the historic 1776 trial of Warwick’s notorious highwayman Bendigo Mitchell.
Bendigo Mitchell was a notorious highwayman who preyed on travellers along the Warwick to Banbury turnpike and the Fosse. The Slaughterhouse Players will tell the tale of Bendigo and his horse “Skater”, who got his nick name when he skittered across the frozen pond at Chesterton Water Mill, with Bendigo on his back, to escape capture.
Chris Willsmore, co-founder of the group and autho, said “Slaughterhouse Players have re-enacted a few trials over recent years, and we’re delighted to be performing in aid of Myton Hospice and the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.”
“It is also especially significant that we will be performing where Bendigo was tried in the autumn of 1776 when his luck finally ran out”
The story will be told in the original venue of the Assize – The Old Court House in Jury Street, where Bendigo was tried and condemned.
It is said that he was hanged before a crowd of more than 10,000 people in what is now Warwick Sainsbury’s car park.
The audience are being encouraged to dress in the fashions of the time and take part in the proceedings, with 12 of their number drawn at random to take their places at the end of the evening as members of the jury, to deliver the verdict on the trial of Bendigo and his accomplices.
Performances will take place on both Saturday and Sunday August 1 and 2 at 7pm, with a 3pm matinee also on the Sunday.
Tickets cost £12 for evening performances (£6 for the Sunday matinee), available by emailing [email protected] or in person from Warwick Tourist Information Office, The Old Post Office, or The Wild Boar.
