Theatre piece looks at dark side
Maybole young delve into town’s history in three- month project
Over two nights recently, the Maybole 500 Youth & Digital Media project offered local people the opportunity to explore the darker side of Maybole’s past.
The Haunted Halls of Maybole was developed by a group of passionate young people who had been working tirelessly on this project for the past three months.
As part of the Maybole 500 events, the Haunted Halls project aimed to engage local young people with the town’s heritage by offering 12 weeks of free workshops in drama and digital media.
The young people involved used the M500 timeline to research parts of the town’s past that they found most scary and then scripted scenes that brought them to life.
Over the two show nights, the group performed for 12 hours and entertained over 170 people.
Ryan Ward, Project Coordinator, said: “The whole team are all extremely proud of the young people and what they have achieved. They are a credit to the town and delivered an extremely professional performance to their audience.
“Thank you to the whole Haunted Halls team, without you this event couldn’t have happened. A big thanks also to Lord David for allowing us to use the castle and to his team at the estate for being so accommodating.”
Both show nights were a sell out and the feedback from the public has been extremely positive.
The tour of the Haunted Halls began with visitors being told by Rebecca Cameron abou plans for the future of Maybole Castle. Unfortunately, the projector broke down which elicited quite a bit of sympathy from those on the tour.
However, it really signalled a dimensional shift from the present day to Maybole’s past and the terror began!
The stories told covered the founding of Crossraguel Abbey; David Kennedy, Lord of Cassillis, being killed at the Battle of Flodden; Gilbert, 3rd Earl of Cassillis, who became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland and one of the team sent to France to arrange the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France; the execution of Mary; the roasting of Allan Stewart, Commendator of Crossrague; the imprisonment of the Countess in Maybole Castle; Covenanting times; body snatchers who had been operating in the local area, selling corpses and buried jewellery for profit.
Especially poignant was the final scene. During World War II, many children were evacuated to Maybole and our photo shows one young evacuee with her gas mask.
The whole team are all extremely proud of the young people and what they have achieved