Castle Rackrent 2009

Venue: Shirley Hall, King’s School, Canterbury

Music and Musical Director: Mark Doughtery

Libretto: Michael Irwin

Director: Trevor Alexander

This work was by composer Mark Dougherty and librettist Michael Irwin who wrote the Canterbury Festival’s Community Opera, Promised Land.

Castle Rackrent was a music-drama based on Maria Edgeworth’s darkly comic novella set prior to 1782. It is often regarded as the first historical novel, the first regional novel in English and the first Anglo-Irish novel.

It tells the story of four generations of the Irish family Rackrents’ heirs through their steward, Thady Quirk.

Castle Rackrent was performed as part of the Canterbury Festival fringe.