Theatr Silures, Stuart Butler (Radical Stroud) and Matt Hill

5.00pm - 5:45pm Buffet

5:45pm Doors into performance area open

6.00pm -7.15 Matt Hill

7:15 - 7:30 Interval

7.30 - 8.15 Theatr Silures

8:15 - 8:30 Interval

8.30 - 9.30 Stuart Butler

Matt Hill (Quiet Loner) is storytelling singer-songwriter and community activist whose songs draw inspiration from our history but also speak of today’s fights and struggles. A very British take on the politically charged folk and americana of Woody Guthrie or Steve Earle. Matt will performing songs from 'The Battle for the Ballot'. Written whilst he was People's History Museum 'songwriter in residence' these original songs tell the story of the men and women - reformers, revolutionaries, chartists and suffragettes - who fought for our right to vote.

Theatr Silures is Newport based bare-bones theatre company. For the Newport Rising Festival they will present extracts from Alexander Cordell’s ‘Rape of the Fair Country’. The novel is a beautifully told story of the Mortymer family in the iron-making communities of Blaenavon and Nantyglo in the 19th century. The action is seen through the eyes of young Iestyn Mortymer who grows up in times of growing tensions between ironmasters and Trade Unionists. In 1826, when the book starts, Iestyn is eight years old and already beginning work at the Garndyrus furnaces near Blaenavon . Through the heart-wrenching story of the Mortymer family, Cordell tells the story of the Chartist movement starting in Wales with profoundly researched factual events like the 1839 Newport Rising.

Radical Stroud (http://radicalstroud.co.uk/about-us/) is made up by an eclectic left field group of performative historians - who present a set of new and revered texts, as they reveal the links between their town and the last armed insurrection on British soil: John Frost had been selected as the prospective Chartist candidate for the next election in Stroud. But the links do not end there - Stroud citizen Charlotte-Alice Bingham became the lover and tutor of the charismatic George Shell who was shot outside the Westgate Hotel and took three agonizing hours to die. Hear, once more, the acclaimed presentation for three voices: The Life and Times of George Shell - written by Stuart Butler and read and performed by Keith Butler, Rachel Simpson and Stuart. A beautiful commemorative booklet, designed by Deb Roberts will be on sale, too.

After this powerful presentation, Stuart will also read his counter-factual piece What If? This explores how history might have unfolded if the Newport Rising had been successful. Food for thought!

This will be followed by Stuart’s poetic narrative about the pubs involved in the Rising, then and now (Stuart is visiting all the sites in the valleys with the help of local historians). Stuart will be joined by Tudor Etchells and Judith Lewis.