The King of Prussia Cove

When I heard that The King of Prussia Cove was being performed at the Minack Theatre, I leapt at the chance to see it again. Only a few days after seeing Gonamena, I was revelling in another aspect of Cornish history. The King of Prussia Cove was that rare kind of a man -- an honest free trader who understood how much his customers relied upon him. Although he flouted the law, he was an honourable man fell foul of a bored and unprincipled noblewoman.

But everything works out all right in the end and this particular performance was brilliantly handled and very funny.

I'd seen it before when performed by the Kneehigh Theatre company at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth over 10 years ago and was delighted to hear it broadcast on Radio Four with many of the original Kneehigh cast. Tim Smit subsequently chose the haunting song that rhymes Poseidon with beside ‘un as one of his Desert Island Discs. This performance by Rough Coast therefore had a lot to live up to but it is difficult to see what better setting can be found for a rumbustuous play about smuggling and the spectacular Minack Theatre.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that one of my sister’s school friends was descended from the very same Mrs Stackhouse who caused so many problems for The King of Prussia Cove. And this time around, I understood the references to Pistol Meadow in the opening song.

Pistol Meadow was the scene of the terrible shipwreck when the bodies of many soldiers were washed ashore on The Lizard. There were so many of them, the local people had to bury them in a mass grave to stop them being eaten by wild dogs and the many years afterwards it was said that there were no dogs on The Lizard peninsula for they had been purged from that part of Cornwall.

Pistol Meadow is supposed to have an air of overwhelming melancholy but having been there on a summer's day I can't say that I felt this. Neither did my aunt who, had she been born a generation later, would definitely have been a Goth.

Our night's show was the last night for The King of Prussia Cove but I cannot believe that this Nick Darke play won't be shown again. There were some subtle changes from earlier performances, if my imperfect memory can be relied upon, but the outcome was pretty much the same -- the upright and incorruptible preventative man was eventually bought by The King of Prussia Cove and his gang.