Ralegh: The Treason Trial at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse this Winter, compiled, edited, dramatised and directed by Oliver Chris.

'Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood'
Walter Ralegh, The Lie.
Winchester Great Hall
17 November, 1603
The air is alive with the silence of a thousand expectant eyes. Ralegh enters, slowly, walking with a cane, neither proud nor defiant, concealing a limp with a studied control.
Ralegh bows to the bench. Then the jury, The charge is read. 
So begins the trial of the best hated person in England. A trial that changed history.
Ralegh: The Treason Trial is an immersive, verbatim account of what played out on that extraordinary November morning, compiled and edited from sources present at the trial itself. With a limited run in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Ralegh: The Treason Trial will be set in the arena of today’s political judicial system. As such we will be abandoning the doublets and ruffs of the early 17th century in favour of the lanyards and bureaucratic dress of the modern day corridors of power. 
During Ralegh’s lifetime, there was no standardised spelling of surnames. Consequently, the way his name was written down varied enormously, from spellings like Rawleye to Rayley or the even more obscure Raulyghe or Raule. He didn’t even spell his own name consistently for much of his life, but from about 1585 he did seem to settle on the spelling Ralegh, which is what we’ve opted for. Surprisingly, there is no record of him ever using posterity’s favoured spelling, Raleigh.
In their first festival of the season, they will explore early modern and modern responses to the themes of power and corruption.
Ambitious Fiends runs November 2018 – February 2019 and includes Macbeth, Doctor Faustus, Dark Night of the Soul and Ralegh: The Treason Triall. 
 At the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse,  from 24 to 30 November 2018, book your Ralegh: The Treason Trial tickets today!