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CRUSADE is the epic story of the Children’s Crusade which took place in medieval France in the early part of the 13th Century.
Every age has its peculiar folly, some scheme, project or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by either the love of gain, the necessity of excitement or the mere force of imagination. Failing in these it has some madness to which it is goaded by political and religious causes or both combined. Every one of these causes influenced the Crusades and conspired to render them the most extraordinary instance on record of the extent to which popular enthusiasm can be carried. In this extraordinary period in history seven Crusades were mounted to free Jerusalem from the hands of the infidel. A time of extremes, violent motives, opinions and feelings, piety, fanaticism, wisdom, superstition, madness and imagination….
 Greyfriars Kirk  Greyfriars Kirk  Greyfriars Kirk  Greyfriars Kirk  Greyfriars Kirk
They marched through Tours and Lyons and finally down to Marseilles finding whatever food or shelter they could along the way. Many children died, many turned back and tried to find their way home.
When the remainder did reach Marseilles the miracle of the parting of the sea did not happen. Stephen was convinced that his prayers would be answered. This seemed to be the case when two merchants offered to place a fleet of seven ships at their disposal to sail to Palestine. Eager to see the hand of God in this the children marched onto the ships. Days out of Marseilles the fleet ran into storms. Two of the ships were wrecked and all lives lost. The remaining five ships sailed on, not to the Holy Land but the Saracen port of Bougie in Algeria where all the children were sold into slavery.
This factual and remarkable episode in history takes us into the world of medieval France, into the innocence and naivety of blind faith, into the treachery and darkness that lives in the minds of men, as the Crusade explores the power and survival of the human spirit against all odds. It is a journey of hope!
Development & News
Written by Craig Christie with music by Craig Christie and Wayne Hosking it was first presented directed by Craig Christie in his residency at Canterbury Girls’ Secondary School in September 1995. After its first rewrites it was presented again produced by No Mates Productions at The Old Market Theatre at Billanook College in December 1996.
As a result of the enthusiasm and expressions of support CRUSADE received for the 1996 production and thanks to the generous financial support of Penny Maclagan from Computershare, the interest and assistance of director Gary Young was attained and an intensive period of rewriting and workshopping was undertaken in April 1997.
The enthusiasm that this workshop generated lead to the decision to develop CRUSADE to reach as wide an audience as possible. Guy Simpson accepted the invitation to musically direct the piece and Graeme Brown began work on orchestrations.
Craig Christie invited Picture This! Productions to produce what was to be a concert presentation of the work in progress, and this concert premiered at the Melbourne Concert Hall in May 1998.
At the beginning of 2000 Craig was flown over to Edinburgh to discuss the viability of producing CRUSADE during the Edinburgh Festival 2000.
This production complete with definitive rewrites was staged at Greyfriar’s Kirk - a beautiful church a few hundred metres from Edinburgh Castle - for six performances in August 2000.
 News Feature - The Scotsman, 24 August 2000  News Feature - The Age, 11 May 1998  News Feature - Victorian Schools News, 19 October 1995 |
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