Captain Swing and the Blacksmith is a riotous performance of passion and tragedy, brought to life with spellbinding voices, fiddle and accordion. Set in Wiltshire, the show presents the struggles of a button seller in the 1840s, against the backdrop of the agricultural uprising: ‘The ‘Swing Riots’. The show creates an echo of the world of the riots by performing folksongs of the period as well as original material with storytelling. The result is a ‘Folk Operetta’, engaging audiences with the spirit of the time, and the hardships, dramas and passions of the people who challenged the status quo. Finely executed arrangements, combined with dramatised source material, are the show’s strength, as well as the opportunity for audience participation in the rabble-rousing verses of rebellion.  

The show has previously performed at the Ivyhouse, Nunhead, and toured the West Country with Rural Touring for Pound Arts. It has collaborated with Sarah Collins’ chamber choir, including a moving rendition of the song ‘Goodbye My Darling’, a lament by a transported convict for his wife.  

Captain Swing and the Blacksmith is a collective of musicians, singers and writers. They include writer, performer and creator of the book ‘Captain Swing and the Blacksmith’, Beatrice Parvin; Frank Biddulph, violinist, well-known virtuoso player on the London Jazz and world music scene; Pete Watson, accordionist, a lauded performer from French musettes to the Russian and Balkan tradition; Emmie Ward, respected English folk singer of ‘Tamesas’; folk singer Gillie Orbach and BBC Radio Foley artist, Alison Craig.