Chester House Productions - The Story of Florence Nightingale

Thursday 21 October 2010, 7.30pm

It was on 21 October 1854 that Florence Nightingale and her party of 38 nurses set sail from Southampton on the Vectis.  They were bound for the Crimea.  In fact it was a journey that would take the party’s leader to celebrity and immortality.  Yet Florence was to live for another half century after her return and her achievements in those years are all too easily forgotten.  So too is the human Florence Nightingale – the woman beneath the legend that was ‘the lady with the Lamp.’

This new play, specially written for 2010 by Vera Hughes, and performed by Chester House Productions, will address many of the above issues and do so in a way which is as informative as it is entertaining.  The ‘action’ centres on the relationship between Florence and her cousin, Henry Bonham Carter, her chief executor and long time secretary to the Nightingale Fund. 

HCS is a uniquely appropriate venue which to stage the play.  Florence’s and Henry’s fathers were the best of friends; so too were Florence and Henry’s sister, Hilary.  In the 1950s, Victor Bonham Carter, nephew to Henry wrote and performed a programme on Florence at Embley for the BBC.  And more than one member of the present generation of Bonham Carters is, of course, well known to film and theatre audiences.

Tickets, including interval refreshments, cost only £5 [HCS pupils £3], and can be obtained from Hampshire Collegiate School.  Please contact info@hampshirecs.org.uk or RFoster@church-schools.com for more information and/or to make reservations.