A BUDDING Worcestershire actress is all set to perform in front of royalty.

Emily Spacie, a former pupil of the Chase High School in Malvern, will take centre stage when a new play about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 opens in London tonight.

None But Friends, written by Kingston University lecturer Allan Swift and Robert Johns, is being staged at the Rose Theatre in south west London as the centrepiece of the International Youth Arts Festival.

The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, will be attending a special gala performance tomorrow (July 8).

Twenty-year-old actress Spacie, a third year drama student at Kingston University in London, is playing Anne, one of two sisters caught up in the rebellion which marked the beginning of the end of feudalism in Medieval England.

“I think it’s great that the role of women is recognised in the play,” said Spacie, who began acting while at school in Worcestershire.

“It makes it more appealing to a modern audience.”

“My character is headstrong and vengeful, but she’s driven by a sense of fairness and won’t let injustices pass by.”

The new play is billed as a “thrilling tale of passion, murder and mutiny”.

Mr Swift, a scriptwriter who has written for Hollyoaks, Casualty, Eastenders and The Bill, said the production was epic in its scope and ambition, with a cast of forty.

“It has a broad appeal because it’s a dramatic story told with verve and tremendous pace,” he said.

“It’s brutal in its violence but it’s also funny and tender.”

Set in Walmer in Kent, it tells of Anne and her friend Robert Coombes who join a march to London to protest against state corruption and excessive taxes. Anne’s sister Kate stays at home and, in a echo of the ‘landgirls’ in the Second World War, joins other women in bringing in the harvest while the men are away.

None But Friends is on at the Rose Theatre in Kingston from today (Wednesday, July 7) to Friday, July 9.

For tickets, priced £4.50 to £20, call 0871 230 1552 or book online at rosetheatrekingston.org.