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Unholy Trinity by Ego Arts

October 4, 2024
Author: Francis Stojsavljevic, Ego Arts

As part of the St Mary’s Guildhall Community Engagement Programme, as supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are working with Ego Arts who have created an incredible theatrical production which will open at St Mary’s Guildhall on 10th October, and will run to the 19th October. Francis Stojsavljevic, from Ego Arts, wrote about their work.

Unholy Trinity is a story created in Coventry, by Coventry people, for one of Coventry’s most historic buildings.

But if you lived in Coventry in 1548, the year the play is set, you might be confused by its cast of characters.

In the show, historical figures like 14th century minstrels Ooghmus and Matilda Makejoy are thrown together with contemporary figures like the 1548 Lord Mayor, a capper called Saunders, to form a patchwork reimagining of the Guildhall’s history.

This is how we create things at EGO. At the start of the creative process, our ensemble of actors spent weeks researching the history of St Mary’s Guildhall, then months devising and improvising, giving our ideas a chance to breathe and cherry-picking the elements that inspired us most.

The result is a lavish, raucous tale that unfolds in front of you, generously peppered with historical detail to do justice to the gorgeously authentic surroundings of the Guildhall.

You’ll watch the story unfold throughout the building, beginning in the courtyard and culminating in the Great Hall.

EGO has been producing theatre for 18 years, but the Tudor language of this show has presented a unique challenge.

For example, our directors have put a strict ban on contractions. You won’t find the word “you’re” in the script – only “you are” or “thou art”. We are not allowed to paraphrase, or substitute archaic words with their modern equivalents, and we must thoroughly understand the meaning of each line.

The trouble is, the better you understand a line, the more likely you are to say it in your own words, so we’ve all been caught out during rehearsals.

But attention to detail matters to us. Every moment of the show is crafted with care, because we always produce our theatre to the highest possible standard.

Our last large-scale production was Mortal at London Road Cemetery in October 2023. The entire cemetery embraced its Victorian heritage as bodysnatchers lurked through the shadows and fog. The audience’s journey through that space, in what felt like the dead of night, was spine-tingling. The performance itself was of course brilliant, but the location was everything.

That’s why we found the offer of performing at St Mary’s Guildhall irresistible. Even arriving in that empty hall on a normal December evening was spellbinding – our imaginations ran rampant thinking about the exuberant characters and dark deeds that we could bring to our audiences.

And now, after months of rehearsals, set-building and costume-making, we’re almost ready to bring those ideas to life.

Thank you to Niamh and the team at the Guildhall for giving us the opportunity to create theatre for one of Coventry’s most iconic spaces. We hope you enjoy the show.

Unholy Trinity runs from 10th – 19th October, 8pm at St Mary’s Guildhall. Tickets are available at egoarts.co.uk/events. Follow the link below to buy tickets.

Buy tickets to unholy trinity
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