The Crick Crack Club at Cranborne Earthouse | Dauntless – Grace O’Malley: Pirate Queen

The Crick Crack Club at Cranborne Earthouse | Dauntless – Grace O’Malley: Pirate Queen

There is a hill in Dorset that has a door. Inside is a fire-lit theatre. This is Cranborne Earthouse – one of England’s most magical, secret venues. Seating up to 250 people and lit by oil lamp and firelight, this is a place where audiences gather – under an earth roof, held up by 21 huge oak tree trunks – to listen to stories and music.

Every month, world-class storytellers, The Crick Crack Club, bring legendary live performance storytelling to the Earthouse.

Dauntless – Grace O’Malley: Pirate Queen by Debs Newbold

Debs Newbold gleefully delivers the boisterous, remarkable and inspirational story of her hero: Grainne ni Mhaille – Grace O’Malley – legendary Irish clan chief and queen of the sea.

Stowing away aboard her father’s ship aged eight, Grace became a 16th-century force of nature. A multilingual, seafaring weapons expert, leader of 2,000 men, rebel, politician, kingmaker and slayer, prodigious lover, avenging hero and notorious pirate. Best of all, she was real.

From the west of Ireland to the court of Elizabeth I, from wild youth to even wilder old age, Dauntless is an epic celebration of uproarious storytelling, high drama and one fascinating 16th-century feminist. No knights in shining armour need apply.

★★★★ ‘ENTRANCING!’ – Hector Gilchrist, eFestivals

‘NEWBOLD IS A MASTER OF WORDS AND SPACE!’ – Views from the Gods

DEBS NEWBOLD is a passionate and skilled performer with a gift for bringing the epic out of the everyday. She has made and performed work for the Royal Opera House, the BBC, Hay Festival, the RSC and Shakespeare’s Globe. She also takes her work to theatres, festival stages and community spaces all over the world.

TICKETS: £13
SUITABLE FOR: adults (14+)
RUNNING TIME: 80-90 mins (no interval)
STARTS: 7.30pm (We open the site at 6pm for evening shows. If it’s sunny, please feel free to bring a picnic to eat in the grounds of the Earthouse).

CONTENT WARNING: This performance may contain descriptions of birth, postnatal bleeding, sex, violence and death, contextualised within a paradigm of mythic narrative, archetype and metaphor.