HAT has awarded £500 of funding to the Sarah Siddons fan club to help with the costs of staging Southampton events 3-5th August 2025 culminating in a series of talks and a film screening in August 2025. The aim is to show the effect of the preparations of the expected Armada attack in Southampton and Southampton’s other Armada links.
As their website more colourfully says ‘1588! The Spanish are sailing up the Channel, heading for the Isle of Wight – Southampton is on the Front Line and the Queen has asked for two ships! Bit of a problem … the town only wants to send one, the mayor is being threatened with prison for privateering, the town is full of plague, there are spies everywhere and the beer is running out! see https://sarahsiddonsfanclub.org.uk/events/armada/
In their own words ‘The Sarah Siddons fan club is a street theatre company in Southampton telling site specific (where possible) historic stories. In 2025 as the Armada project we will be celebrating and participating in the Jane Austen 250 festival.
We have done many pieces of theatre from 1070 and the Norman conquest up to 1940’s Southampton and the Blitz. We have a full list of past productions on our website.
We like to think we make history humorous, entertaining and informative using actual characters from Southampton’s extensive history.’