Playmakers, Pantos and Pirates: The Story of Historical Huzzahs

Martin Jakeman is the founder and artistic director of the Winchester based Theatre company,Historical Huzzahs. He explores how theatre and live performances can be used to teach audiences about history in an active and engaging style. Learn how the idea developed from his time performing on the streets of Winchester, hearing the real stories of British citizens on the home front of World War II, working with the illustrator of Horrible Histories, and more.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Playmakers, Pantos and Pirates: 

The Story of Historical Huzzahs  

Emma: Today's guest is Martin Jakeman, founder and artistic director of Winchester based theatre company, Historical Huzzahs. The company specialises in fun, interacting and accessible history for audiences of all ages and abilities. A University of Winchester graduate, Martin also works with and for the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Welcome Martin to Hampshire HistBites.  

Martin: Hello. Yes, it's lovely to be here.  

Emma: Martin, have you always lived in the Winchester area? Obviously you studied here. Have you lived here all your life? 

 Martin: I haven't, no. A friend described it and I've latched onto it that I came here to go to University and then forgot to go home. I lived in Reading in Berkshire, so Winchester was a good enough distance for a bit of independence, but close enough I can take my washing home in the weekends if need be. 

Emma:  Have you always been interested in history? Was there a particular time when you became interested in it or is it something that you've always loved? 

Martin: I've always loved history, but it's the merging together of history and performance that's been slightly newer to me. In 2012 I attended my first year of what's called Ufton Drama Summer School, which is in Ufton Nervet in Berkshire. And it's this beautiful Tudor Manor and we stay there for the week. And my first year was Brecht and Epic Theatre, which looks specifically at the British Homefront and propaganda based around there. And we were very lucky enough to be able to rehearse in this beautiful medieval barn. And it's the first time that I'd been able to do a performance in a heritage space. And I really enjoyed sort of the feel that it came across and thinking "Oh, actually it could be really interesting to do more site-specific things with performance." And that was stuck at the back of my mind until my third year of university where we did a performance-now module where we went out and interacted with Winchester doing different tasks, whether it be standing still and looking up at a certain piece of architecture. And once I then joined the National Museum of the Royal Navy down in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard it was doing exactly what I've had in the back of my mind, where we're on a ship or in a museum  space, and we were helping bring it to life. And for me, I then realised, that this is what I want to do, so let's have a theatre company as well so I can do specifically what I want, but also have the amazing times on all these beautiful ships whilst at work.  

Emma: So for you also, the environment is the wonderful stimulus to create the site-specific performance pieces that you do. But if we could go back a little bit you mentioned about performances in Winchester, and you've also had involvement with the Winchester Hat Fair. Could you tell us a little bit why the Winchester Hat Fair is so special to you?  

Martin: Yeah, I love Hat Fair. Slightly biased because it's in Winchester and I love 

Winchester, but it's the fact that it's outdoor. The fact that it's so beautifully accessible and it's busking so it's pay what you feel. I first went in, I think 2014 or -15, and absolutely loved it. Just exploring the city and seeing all these beautiful spaces in a completely new light, thinking "Well, I never thought you could do a performance down here, but it turns out you can and it goes really well." Then in my third year, the University and the Theatre Royal Winchester, who now part of I believe Playmakers, which also come under the umbrella with Hat Fair as well. And they put out a competition called the Top Hat competition where alumni students and current students at the University could pitch an idea of a short play that would then be performed at Hat Fair as part of this competition. And then whoever won then got a commission for the next year. So I entered with a show that I had done before called Hamelot, which is the pantomime of Shakespeare's Hamlet. And we won! I thought that pantomime would go really, really well in an outdoor space where you don't have a set audience. Because pantomime is this wonderful thing where you know what you're going to go and see before you see it, but still we go anyway. So no matter where we are on the show, even if someone's walking by on the way to somewhere else, if they hear "Oh, no, it isn't" they can't help but shout "Oh yes, it is" back. And we'd be able to just pick up a few extra members of the audience as we go through, we'd lose some, but it worked really well in the space. And part of the, the prize and the commission was also to be mentored by Andrew Loretto, who runs Hat Fair. And we sat down in this meeting and he said, "Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to do another comedy?" And I thought about it for a while and I started planning it, but just nothing sort of felt right. And from there, I'd gone back home and I'd recorded my granddad's war stories. ‘Cause I've realised, well, you know, he's 93 and, not wanting to sound negative, he's not going to be here forever. And it was that idea that actually, that there's people like my grandfather who have these stories and I thought, well, why don't we make a performance of all of these stories. 

And St John's in Winchester collaborated with us and we went there and had lunch and we spoke to people and we recorded some stories and it was just fantastic to hear what there was. And then part of that, we listened back to "Oh, What a Lovely War!" and right at the beginning of their run, you would come up after the show and you'd be like "Oh, well this is my story from the war." And then they might adapt the performance. I thought what a wonderful thing to have this fluid performance that changes depending on what's being shared. So the script, when we finally sat down and we said "this is what it's going to be" compared to what we do now is completely different. And it will be completely different every single time we do it. 

So then going on into Hat Fair 2019, we performed in the St John's gardens and we set up this beautiful tea marquee and we had seats there and St John were really welcoming and the Theatre Royal managed to source all of this, sort of splendour with tea cups and whatnot. And we sat around and I believe we did about four performances in the day, but in between we were always running our tea urn and we had some cake there that people could just chuck in some donations. And it was a way of breaking the tension and having a chat. And whether it be first person or third person stories, we collected loads and loads of them. And now the next step is then to try and create an archive and potentially working with Hampshire Archives to try and make sure that everybody can hear these because they're such wonderful stories and pieces of social history.  

Emma: That is absolutely a fantastic story. And there's lots of places that I could jump with my questions now, but I'm going to start with asking you  do you have a place in Winchester that you find, from a personal point of view, is particularly special to you? And also, with your artistic director-hat on, are there parts of Winchester which you'd like to perform in, but they have the challenges. Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about some of those challenges.  

 Martin: It's a tough one because it's full of these lovely little alcoves and these spots that you'll be walking around after spending years there and go "Oh, I've never been here before." But I think for me, probably the City Mill in Winchester, because it's got such a wonderful soundscape when you're sitting or you're walking around and you've got the sound of running water, you've got the chugging of the machinery and the chatting of the volunteers sharing their experience and what they know. So for having something that you can say "Well, for about a thousand years we know that there's been milling on this site," something linking all of that together and location and purpose, and that currently you're then part of that story, carrying it on until it's then the next person's job to then take over from it. 

Winchester City Mill 

Emma: For anybody that doesn't know or isn't familiar with Winchester City Mill, could you just describe what it's like when you enter the building and also go down to where the actual wheel is, because you mentioned the atmospherics and it is incredibly atmospheric.  

Martin: Absolutely. It's a fantastic place ‘cause it's full of different mini environments. So as you enter, the smell hits you as you go in and it's not a horrid smell , it's the smell of something old, and the smell of flour, and you're there on these beautiful wooden floorboards. And you have the whole length of the mill that you can see. So to your left, you've got the door to go down to the mill race, what's turning the wheel. You've also got the door down into the garden, which is again beautiful. And then you've actually got the machinery then just off to your left as well. There's normally the tinkling of a bell that's going on. And then as you carry on down, you've got some hands-on activities, which of course I absolutely love. I hate it when people call them children's activities because I love doing them. Call me a big child, but I love it. If somewhere has a children's trail, I take one because it's just another way of exploring and interacting with a property. But if you go down into the mill race and you go from one environment to sort of an extreme of another, the temperature tends to drop as you go down and you're onto this metal platform, so you've gone from this very natural wood onto the very secure metal platform below. 

And you've got the gushing of the water as it comes down through one of the sluices. And then the next bit you have is the wheel itself. And it's turning away, and if there's a miller there, then they tend to have someone down below who's collecting the flour because they're still milling. And it's just wonderful because then also behind you, you've got more interaction. They've got a different set of mill wheels and it shows you the difference between if the water is hitting at the top or in the middle or at the bottom, which to me, I never thought would be a massive difference. But if you go, definitely check it out because you will see the massive difference in how important it is. 

Also got cafe there now as well. So I think they use the flour in which they mill to go into these goods. So you can quite literally can enjoy what's being made.  

Emma: And of course at the moment with the extraordinary times that we're all living through flour has become a commodity whereby, you know, people can't get enough of it. People are doing a lot of home baking. Mills have had a resurgence, which I think is really special. Thank you, Martin.  

Now, if we go back to, you were talking about some of the places that you've performed in Winchester, could you tell us an interesting story or a funny story about some of the challenges or some of the places in Winchester where you've performed. 

Martin: Instantly springs to mind, just before we started performing Hamelot for the Hat Fair, somebody decided to take out the bins and they walked straight across our performance space. And unfortunately, one of the bins was leaking. So we have this horrible, what looked like snail trail, going all the way across our makeshift stage. And then it was sort of all hands-on deck trying to find somebody with a mop. ‘Cause not only did it look bad, it also smelt awful. And at the end of Hamlet and Hamelot, there's an awful lot of death which involves lying on the floor. And, yeah, I don't think I'd be very popular if I made actors lay down in bin juice. 

Oral History Projects 

Emma: You mentioned also about Theatre Royal Winchester had also played an important part in your journey so far in your career. Could you tell the audience a little bit about some of the oral history projects that you've been working on specifically in relation to the Home Front and also World War Two, and any stories that you would like to share that have come out of those oral histories or some of the research findings? 

Martin: Yes. So I didn't mention the project's name that I did with them. And so, it's called Home Fires and it's collecting the oral histories of those who remained at home, and kept the home fires burning. So quite a lot of people that are still around, were evacuees. And so, we've collected lots of those and the Theatre Royal during the Second World War was a cinema. It was called the Royal. There was a number of cinemas, but in the Hampshire Archive you can go back through and delve into the Hampshire Chronicle. And every single one, you turn through the pages and there it is the Royal, and they're showing you what's being advertised, how long it's on for.  

Gas Mask Demonstrations 

Emma: Martin, you mentioned about the Royal. It was a cinema, but they also provided gas mask demonstrations during World War Two. And it was obviously adult gas mask demonstrations, children's gas mask demonstration, but also baby gas masks. And for our listeners, would you tell us a little bit more about that? And also what is a baby's gas mask and what did that look like?  

Martin: Well, short term, horrifying. That's what they look like. You've got the one that everybody knows, which is the adult one. It's got the strip across the eyes, so you can look out. The children's one, also known as a Mickey Mouse gas mask, was a strange orange. And then if you breathe out really quick the outlet valve, which just looks like a cut balloon makes a rather crass noise. So children used to love doing that. But the baby's gas mask, I can describe it as, almost like a cocoon. It's got a large panel that the child can see out of and the mother can see in, and it goes around the baby. So the whole baby's inside it. And then it gets done up and the mother then has to manually pump air into it with what looks like a squeegee type box. And it just looks absolutely horrifying. Not only that, but the filters that were on the gas masks contained blue asbestos. Now at the time, it wasn't too bad because if asbestos is all together, then it's not too bad. Obviously you still don't really want to breathe it in, but it's better than gas. But nowadays it's when they're beginning to break down and the fibres of the blue asbestos are beginning to break up and you see people having a go with what they might have found in the loft it’s extremely dangerous. 

Emma: And actually I'll add something else to that is actually illegal to sell a gas mask on eBay for that exact reasons they are only purely as handling objects. So yes, that's our disclaimer, don't buy a gas mask, unless you're using it as a handling object, they're very dangerous.  

Martin: Absolutely.  

Air Raid Shelter Musician 

Emma: You mentioned, obviously you have collected these incredible oral histories about World War Two and people's reminiscences of Winchester. Could you tell us a little bit about the gentleman, the musician, who played in the air raid shelter? Tell us a little bit more about that story that you have discovered.  

Martin: So this is one of my favourite stories in which we found. We were at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, we were sitting down in between HMS Victory and the M 33, so wonderful setting. And we were doing cups of tea and coffee. And this gentleman was about to walk away and I said, "Would you like a free cup of tea instead?" He was like, "Oh yes, actually." And then I said, "Well, do you have any stories about the War?" And he said, "No, no, no, no, no. I was too young to remember anything." Then after a couple of minutes he went, "yes." And he told this lovely story about how music really can play such a key part in the morale of people. 

VE Day and VJ Day 

Emma: So Martin, during your time collecting these oral history stories, which of course you have done in conjunction with the Winchester Theatre and also in your work down at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Could you tell us a little bit more about some of the stories that you've heard in relation to Victory in Europe Day or Victory over Japan?  

Martin: Yes. So what we have discovered is that obviously quite a lot of the time it was street parties, there was bunting. Strangely enough, there was way too much food for people to have stuck to their rations. And what a lot of people don't know is that it was illegal to hoard food. So, magically all of this food appeared, but chatting to one lady who lives in St John's, she told us about how it was different for her. She lived in a Jewish community and they didn't think that it would really be fitting to celebrate the end of the War when obviously there was all this news coming out about the concentration camps, the work camps and, just in general, how that religion had really been treated. So there wasn't really any of that. And, when we were speaking the other day, Emma, you then pointed out about, how for some, you focus more on VJ Day. For Home Fires, we didn't touch on VJ Day, it was VE Day that we focused on because that's the day in which we set it. But it was just really interesting to hear this other side of the story that I've never thought about before.  

Emma: It is fascinating. And I thought I knew that from social history perspective, I thought I knew that period incredibly well. Martin, you've been involved with Heritage Open Days for how many years now? 

Heritage Open Days 

Martin: I wish that it was more than just the one year, but I've attended more than what I've participated in. But, last year we did Home Fires there, we were on the lawns of the Royal Hampshire Regiments with a pop-up tearoom. It hammered down all day with rain as the great British weather does, but we managed to get lots of people in shouting "Would you like a free cup of tea to get out of the rain?" So we actually managed to get a decent amount of footfall.  

Horrible Histories Exhibit 

Emma: You mentioned that you had been working at the Horrible Histories Exhibition. That was actually at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Horrible Histories are an incredibly popular with children now and a great way of reaching out. But can you tell me a little bit about the exhibition they put on at the Museum of the Royal Navy?  

Martin: Yeah, so it's the Horrible Histories Pirate Exhibition originally over in Australia, I think that's where it got its first commission. And then from there it's come over to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with the National Museum of the Royal Navy and they've taken over the building that was the Jutland exhibition. We had Martin Brown, the illustrator, come along for the grand opening, who is just absolutely amazing. I fan girled a little bit and I told him how much I loved Horrible Histories because to me it was the first kind of book where history could be fun and visual. The first thing I do with a Horrible Histories book is flick through all of the illustrations and then go back and read it. But the exhibition itself is very colourful, there's loads of things to do. There's even two massive pirate ships in there, that you can fire sponge balls at each other. It really is fantastic. And, they don't lose the magic of Horrible Histories by taking it from the page and putting it into this exhibition. So being there as a pirate, in a mix between horrible pirates, but also lovely pirates. Because there's a fine balance when there's, let's say a child throwing five or six sponge balls at you. You're not really allowed to go full pirate on them, but you still have to have a smile on your face.  

World War One Project 

Emma: Martin, you've got some interesting projects coming up, including one at the Hampshire Regimental Museum in Winchester in relation to World War One. Could you tell our listeners a little bit more about that, please? 

Martin: So what it is, is the Hampshires, or the First Hampshires, the Second Hampshire, 

Regiment, have played a massive role, especially because honestly, military history in Winchester are extremely close. And they took part in the Somme and also Gallipoli, and for people who know the First World War, these are two very big battles, but also very different. One was over on the Continent, the other one's down in the Dardanelles in Turkey. And mainly you hear about the Anzacs, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, about Gallipoli. But it was just by chance I was watching a documentary and there was a flippant remark about how we can't waste all of the Hampshires. 

And then that made me realise that they were there as well. So what I'd love to do is to create a First World War workshop about trench life, about the idea of the Tommy’s. Because I feel that there's quite a lot of broad workshops where you just talk about, sort of the general experience. But I feel that the children who are within the Hampshire area, I think should really find out about the local aspect and about the local people that went away, they took up the call and they fought for King and country and freedom. So for me, that's something I really want to do.  

Emma: That's fantastic. Where can listeners find out more about Historical Huzzahs, your theatre company?  Could you just tell us where people can find out more about it?  

 Martin: We have a website, which is historicalhuzzahs.co.uk. We've got email, which is historicalhuzzahs@gmail.com. We're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well. And they're all linked on the website, so I think, if you really want to find out more, head to the website, and then from there you can sort of disperse into the many different social media aspects in which you want. Always feel free to email us. There's no such thing as a stupid question, even if it's about "My kid's doing a project for school, and I'm wondering about this," send it over. Because we're here to help. We're not just there as a theatre company, but we also want to be able to be there to help.