Cato Street 1820

Posted on

In 2019 I worked on a fascinating show written and performed by actor David Benson called ‘Cato Street 1820’. It tells the story of a plot to overthrow the government and is a shocking tale of political intrigue and murder most foul!

The show features a very old song from the late 1700’s which has taken on several forms and titles from ‘Whilst Happy In My Native Land’ to ‘Death Or Liberty’. The British Library contained a very sparse and early score for this which I took and re-arranged into several orchestral versions for the show. It’s a very catchy song which hasn’t been heard for over 200 years so it was a real pleasure to take this music and transform it for the show.

I was recently able to attend a performance of this at the British library and was really pleased with how well the show came over along with the musical elements. It was great to catch up with David afterwards and Reece Shearsmith who you may know from League Of Gentlemen and Inside Number 9 fame to name but a few.