The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company for their 1964 Christmas season. Robert Bolt is best known as the screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, and as the playwright of A Man for All Seasons. But in the early 1960s, when he was establishing himself as a writer, he was also a teacher. He believed strongly that theatre could inspire young people, so he wrote a few plays specifically for schools and youth audiences.
In this production, we are taken into a magical world of adventure and medieval mischief thought up in our interpretation by a teenage boy, who becomes the Storyteller as well as the dragon! The play follows Oblong Fitz Oblong, a peerless Knight who is tasked with restoring order and justice to the Bolligrew Isles, which are ruled by the evil Baron Bolligrew and the fearsome Black Dragon. Before long, Oblong finds himself caught up in a battle of wits with the Baron and his bumbling Squire Blackheart, dodging tricks, and magic, cast by the evil Dr Moloch. Will courage and kindness prevail over arrogance and corruption?
