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.