No one to Assist - Pomegranate Theatre

The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £ 16,300 for the Pomegranate Youth Theatre to plan research and write a play based on the Chesterfield Workhouse, one of the towns most prominent buildings, its place in the lives of the people at the time and its legacy in the present day.

“No One to Assist” explores the lives of the people who were in The Chesterfield Workhouse and the reasons behind the construction of one of the most prominent buildings in the town.

With help from the Museum, library and John Holmes of The St Helens History Group,this award enabled up to 50 young people from The Pomegranate Youth Theatre and writers from the Young Writers group led by River Wolton, to research the history, the stories of those whose lives it touched and its impact on the social development of Chesterfield.

The finished script and original music has been developed from improvisation and research and will be performed March 17th – 20th 2010 at The Pomegranate Theatre by the young people and professional actors.

During the research phase with help from Leslie Phillips at the Chesterfield Library and Anne-Marie Knowles,the young people were delighted to discover the story of a young local girl called Elvira Batty, who spent a short time in The Chesterfield Workhouse after her father died before emigrating to Utah in America .  The young people were able to trace her name to the passenger lists of the ship she sailed on to America and to discover that she went on to join her sisters and have a long and happy life, below is a short extract from the research we discovered.

I was born in Old Whittington on 11th April 1872. My fathers name was George Batty. He was born in Killamarsh, Derbyshire on 2nd April 1819. He was a big handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes although it was quite grey from the time I can remember him. He was good and kind and we all loved him. My father was a soldier and had served in the Crimean War. He was wounded when bayonet was stuck in his leg, Florence Nightingale was his nurse!   After the war was over he became one of Queen Victoria’s guards. Queen Victoria gave him a picture of her home Windsor Castle. It was a beautiful picture in a gilt frame and I remember it hanging on our wall for most of the time until one time when father who was a coal miner went on strike and we became so poor that he took his picture to a pawn shop in order to get enough money to buy food so that we wouldn’t starve. I can remember he felt so bad that he cried about it and as soon as he got back to work he got his picture back, it was still hanging on the wall in our house when daddy died and  I had to come here…

The costumes have been designed by Pomegranate Theatre Friend Margaret McCall and made by members of the 50+ forum creating its own new intergenerational project. They have met every Thursday morning for the last 5 weeks sewing and sharing their own families memories of the workhouse. Underhall care home have also contributed by knitting shawls and costumes for the young people to wear. 

In order to enable the project to reach a wider audience the script will then be housed at The Chesterfield Museum alongside sourced authentic heritage objects of the time (supplied by the museum) including a DVD of the process, research methods used, research material and a copy of the performance.

  • Directed by Carole Copeland
  • Scripted by Sheila Young/ Elli Ward
  • Musical Director Robert Laughlin/ Musician Annie Botham
  • Actors /Workshop leaders Richard Stone/ Stacey Brunt
  • Poster Design – Jack Wagstaffe

THE POMEGRANATE YOUTH THEATRE has been established for over eight years and its strength lies in the teamwork that make their productions work so effectively.

There are now 5 groups making a total membership of 125 young people aged 8 – 18.  PYT have been fortunate to work with local writers who have produced plays for the group and inspiration is often found from the group’s improvisation skills.

In their former productions – ‘Our Day Out’ ‘Let Sleeping Bags Lie’, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Oh What a Lovely War the group worked with a wealth of professional actors, benefiting from their experience. Other productions have been ‘Impro’ (Comedy Improvisation) and History-onics 1 and 2 exploring different theatre styles through the ages. PYT has also worked closely with the Chesterfield Borough Council for performances for Equality Day and Holocaust Memorial Day.
As well as rehearsing ‘No one to Assist’ all groups of the PYT are currently working on the next Young Peoples Festival in June 2010, ‘History-onics – 3!’.

If you are interested in learning all aspects of Stagecraft and joining the Pomegranate Youth Theatre, please contact Carole Copeland on 01246 345215 or by email at carole.copeland@chesterfield.gov.uk