England, 1776: The leading man of English theatre, David Garrick, has recently retired. His throne is vacant. Who will have the star power to take it?

 

London is divided – two royal patent theatres: Covent Garden and Drury Lane – actually, two and half counting the summer season at the Little Theatre, Haymarket, but that didn't really count, did it?

 

Not so fast. It's manager has written the prelude for the first night of the new Theatre Royal, Liverpool, and it is here we find ourselves at the start of its premier autumn season.

 

Three young actors meet for rehearsal:

 

• Sarah Siddons, still licking her wounds from a failed London debut, and reconciled to being an also-ran for the rest of her days, probably — but who does she think she's kidding!

 

• Her brother, John Philip Kemble, recent college drop-out, and jailbird to boot, imprisoned for not being able to pay his tailor's bill, and let's face it, with no real prospects of being able it anytime soon. 

 

• Elizabeth Inchbald, weary from touring Scotland's barns with a rather wearisome older husband, much of it on foot; now broke after a jaunt to France, and cursed by a stammer she cannot overcome.  

​

Hardly likely contenders to the throne, but could there be a reversal of fortune? Come with us, and meet these three acolytes of Thespis, and if you're lucky, history just might unfold before your very eyes! 

​