How did it start?

It's not everyday that you decide to create a brand new piece of theatre from scratch and take on the entire history of a clutch of islands in the middle of the channel, but that's exactly what I've done.

It actually all started with a citizenship test. [For those of you who don't know since 2002 those wishing to gain indefinite leave to remain or british citizenship have had to complete and pass a citizenship test.]
In Guernsey you are required to answer questions relating to the Bailiwick which makes sense given that even now my local husband doesn't quite get his head around the relationship between Guernsey, the UK and the Queen (our Duke).

Just reading the bullet point history of the bailiwick was fascinating. Pirates, smugglers, exiled literary giants, occupation, tomatoes, grandmother mehnirs, civil war intrigue, matyrs, witches and even dragons jumped out at me.

I'm a storyteller and theatre is my medium so from that moment I kept having glimpses of these amazing stories reimagined onstage and I knew that it was the project that would be perfect to launch a new era of original Theatre created in Guernsey.

Last year I put together a proposal for the Guernsey Arts Commission and convinced them that this was a project worth supporting.

Gathering the right people with a similar passion for creative physical theatre was actually quite easy because running the Guernsey Improbables has meant that I've been able to gather the working professionally trained actors on the island together on a regular basis. Oliver and Dave are part of the Improbables and Elizabeth has worked with me on Arts Commission projects.