Play commissioned to celebrate the 800th anniversary of The Magna Carta

A play about events that led to the most significant constitutional document ever drafted according to Lord Denning, The Great Charter has been commissioned in support of the official commemoration of the Magna Carta 800th anniversary in 2015.

Playwright Steve Hawes has been commissioned to write the play by Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Magna Carta Trust, and entertainment entrepreneur David Nicholas Wilkinson. Entitled The Great Charter, it is intended that the play will be presented to audiences in London’s West End as well as many of the Magna Carta towns such as Canterbury, Bury St Edmunds, Lincoln, Oxford, Salisbury and Windsor (Runnymede).

The play may also travel to Broadway since the American Constitution echoes the Magna Carta. The American Bar Association erected a monument at Runnymede in the 1950s in recognition of its place at the very foundation of the US Constitution of 1787.

The Great Charter will be based upon the dramatic events running up to the sealing of the Magna Carta by King John and is being produced through Sir Robert Worcester and David Wilkinson’s production company, Allington Productions.

Steve Hawes is a scriptwriter with an extensive career in producing and writing for the theatre and television. Most recently he has been working on an adaptation of Dimitri Verhulst’s novel, Problemski Hotel, with director Manu Riche and a multinational cast, as a joint film and theatre association between the Flemish film fund (VAF) and KVS at the Theatre National in Brussels and a new play, Friendly Fire, about the stormy relationship between Churchill and de Gaulle. His theatre version of Beauty and the Beast played the Haymarket Theatre Basingstoke last Christmas. His television career includes producing television network documentaries, dance, opera, ballet, and drama for Granada/ITV, where he was also Head of Drama for some years. In the 1990s he moved to France to produce and then become the lead writer, in French, of the long running detective series, Maigret, from Georges Simenon's novels. His other television work includes La Guerre Secrete de Josephine Baker for Studio International and On Pain of Death for Chorion/Studio International.

Sir Robert Worcester, born and educated in America and founder of the MORI polling company, is leading a £20 million campaign to increase public understanding of the importance of the Magna Carta.

Sir Robert Worcester says: “When I first came to Britain many years ago, I went to the British Museum on my first morning to see the Magna Carta and the Rosetta Stone, because I had been taught that the rule of law and education are the two pillarstones of civilisation. The significance of the Magna Carta is that it provided the basis for all democratic society from free and fair elections to the basics of human rights and justice.”

Through 2013 to 2015 a whole programme of activity is taking place across the UK, highlighting the Magna Carta towns. Concerts, festivals, debates, schools competition and exhibitions at major venues such as the British Library are being produced, as well commissioned memorabilia such as a commemorative stamp and coin. A Magna Carta Day has been unanimously supported by the House of Commons.

For more information on The Great Charter, please see
www.thegreatcharter.com
www.allingtonproductions.com

For further information about the Magna Carta and plans for the Commemoration see
www.magnacarta800th.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Magna-Carta-800th-Anniversary
Twitter: @MagnaCarta800th

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