Townsend Theatre Productions have announced a digital audio release of their critically acclaimed play Neil Gore’s Dare Devil Rides To Jarama. Based on the experiences of The International Brigades during The Spanish Civil War; ‘ Released as a four part play on Monday 24th September, with episodes lasting between 16 and 30 minutes, downloads will cost £6.00 for all four episodes.
Dare Devil Rides To Jarama brings to life the powerful political and economic forces engulfing 1930s Europe and the reasons why so many ordinary people made the extraordinary choice to leave their family, friends and home to defend the Spanish Republic.
The Spanish Civil War was fought 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, aligned with anarchists, communist and syndicalists took to arms against a revolt by the hard-right Nationalists, a group made up Falangists, monarchists, conservatives and Catholics, led by a military group of which General Francisco Franco was at the forefront.
The political climate at the time meant that the war was a complex one, and was considered a class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, and between fascism and communism.
When Spaniards rose up to resist General Franco’s military rebellion, it was an inspiration to millions of people across the world. The heroic struggle of the Spanish people alerted the rest of the world to the threat of fascism.
The play commemorates and celebrates the contribution and sacrifice of the volunteer International Brigades from all over the world, including two and a half thousand from Britain and Ireland, who recognised that the defence of Spanish democracy against fascism was their fight too. Many of the volunteers crossed the Pyrenees to help the Spanish Republic, convinced that this evil had to be stopped to prevent a wider European war.
Compelling and humorous, Dare Devil Rides To Jarama centres on the contrasting true lives of International Brigaders Clem Beckett and Christopher Caudwell. Beckett, a Lancashire blacksmith and famous star of the speedway track, and Caudwell, a renowned writer, poet and philosopher, were killed together at Jarama in February 1937, having become friends as members of the British Battalion’s machine-gun company.
Through their stories, the play sheds light on the political and social world of the 1930s and all that inspired and confronted the Brigaders on their journeys to Spain. It captures the raw passions and emotions of the Spanish Civil War – idealism to despair, hope to anger, determination to fear – through powerful storytelling, stirring song and poetry.
More information can be found here
