The Hawkhurst Gang played to sell-out audiences in the Guildhall, Chichester, and the Gridshell at the Weald & Downland Living Museum in October and November 2018.

 

From an interview in the Chichester Observer with Phil Hewitt, Greg says:

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'Chichester is the landscape of my past – because I went to school here, because I met my wife, Kate Mosse, here. I’ve written two plays set in the area. One of them, The Exchange, was inspired by my mother’s home village of Apuldram.'

 

'With the commemoration of 100 years of Priory Park, I knew I had to write something new that would sit at the heart of all that history. After all, the land has been relatively little disturbed since the 13th century when there was a Franciscan friary on the site.'

 

'Quite quickly, I realised that a gang of bloodthirsty smugglers was a gift. The 1749 trial of the Hawkhurst smugglers actually took place in the Guildhall in Priory Park. We are acting the events of The Hawkhurst Gang, the events of those ”special assizes” in the very place where they happened. Some of the lines I have given to our superb cast are the actual words spoken 269 years ago. I hope I’ve done justice to their memory – “and God have mercy on their rotten souls”.'