Whose Green and Pleasant Land? A FREE PERFORMANCE EVENT AT LEITH HILL PLACE!
Leith Hill Place, Dorking, RH5 6LY
Sunday 4th October 2026
Whose Green and Pleasant Land?
Created by Damn Cheek and Rosie May Jones and commissioned by the National Trust, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? is a world-premiere pageant-performance bringing together local residents, community groups, choirs, musicians, storytellers and theatre-makers from across the Dorking district.
About our pageant
A celebration of place, people and possibility, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? combines music, drama, movement and spoken word in a spectacular community performance created with and by the people of the Dorking district.
In 1938, Surrey residents gathered at Leith Hill Place for England’s Pleasant Land, a community pageant created by local writer E. M. Forster and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Through music, performance and spectacle, it explored the story of England’s rural landscape across a thousand years of history.
Nearly 90 years later, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? revisits many of the same questions for a new century.
This is not a recreation, revival or adaptation of Forster and Vaughan Williams’ original work. Instead, it is an entirely new, bold, community-created performance that responds to contemporary issues, experiences and voices, asking what land, landscape and belonging mean today. Alongside this new material, the production incorporates a re-working of Vaughan Williams’ music, reimagined and woven into the performance to create a dialogue between the past and the present.
Inspired by the landscapes, heritage and communities of the Surrey Hills, the pageant explores identity, belonging, power, stewardship and social justice. It looks back at the forces that have shaped this landscape while asking urgent questions about its future:
Who has shaped this land? Who gets to access it? Who feels they belong? And what responsibilities do we have to those who come after us?
Developed through collaboration and co-creation, the pageant brings together a rich mix of local voices, experiences and perspectives. Professional artists provide the creative framework, but the stories and the performances belong to the community. The result is both a celebration of this place and a conversation about what it means to live here.
Through live performance, music and storytelling, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? transforms local voices into a large-scale theatrical event — a living portrait of the Dorking district and the people who call it home.
Oral histories gathered across the Surrey Hills sit alongside live music led by Maya McCourt, contemporary electronic composition by Jack Kingslake, a new script by Tony Earnshaw, and newly commissioned spoken word by Rosie May Jones.
Rooted in local history, shaped by contemporary voices and looking boldly towards the future, this is a pageant for today.
And the experience extends beyond the main performance.
The morning performance will be preceded by a pre-show community stage featuring local performers, while the afternoon performance will be followed by a post-show community stage celebrating even more local talent.
So whether you come for the pageant, the music, the community performances — or simply to experience something unique with the people of Dorking — there really is something for everyone.
And best of all, it’s completely free!
(booking strongly advised!)
When? Sunday 4 October 2026
Morning session
11am to 11.55am: community performances around the grounds(or inside our marquee, subject to weather)
12pm: Whose Green and Pleasant Land? performance
Afternoon session
2:30pm: Whose Green and Pleasant Land? performance
followed by: community performances around the grounds(or inside our marquee, subject to weather)
A Promenading Pageant!
Please note that this is a promenade performance, which means there is no seating and the audience will instead stand amongst the performance. Seating will, of course, be provided for anyone who has an access need that means they are unable to stand for the duration of the performance.
This project is generously supported by:
Leith Hill Place
National Trust
Arts Council England
Vaughan Williams Foundation
Easy Marquee Hire
Mole Valley District Council
Surrey County Council - Your Councillor Community Fund
www.damncheek.co.uk
Created by Damn Cheek and Rosie May Jones and commissioned by the National Trust, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? is a world-premiere pageant-performance bringing together local residents, community groups, choirs, musicians, storytellers and theatre-makers from across the Dorking district.
About our pageant
A celebration of place, people and possibility, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? combines music, drama, movement and spoken word in a spectacular community performance created with and by the people of the Dorking district.
In 1938, Surrey residents gathered at Leith Hill Place for England’s Pleasant Land, a community pageant created by local writer E. M. Forster and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Through music, performance and spectacle, it explored the story of England’s rural landscape across a thousand years of history.
Nearly 90 years later, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? revisits many of the same questions for a new century.
This is not a recreation, revival or adaptation of Forster and Vaughan Williams’ original work. Instead, it is an entirely new, bold, community-created performance that responds to contemporary issues, experiences and voices, asking what land, landscape and belonging mean today. Alongside this new material, the production incorporates a re-working of Vaughan Williams’ music, reimagined and woven into the performance to create a dialogue between the past and the present.
Inspired by the landscapes, heritage and communities of the Surrey Hills, the pageant explores identity, belonging, power, stewardship and social justice. It looks back at the forces that have shaped this landscape while asking urgent questions about its future:
Who has shaped this land? Who gets to access it? Who feels they belong? And what responsibilities do we have to those who come after us?
Developed through collaboration and co-creation, the pageant brings together a rich mix of local voices, experiences and perspectives. Professional artists provide the creative framework, but the stories and the performances belong to the community. The result is both a celebration of this place and a conversation about what it means to live here.
Through live performance, music and storytelling, Whose Green and Pleasant Land? transforms local voices into a large-scale theatrical event — a living portrait of the Dorking district and the people who call it home.
Oral histories gathered across the Surrey Hills sit alongside live music led by Maya McCourt, contemporary electronic composition by Jack Kingslake, a new script by Tony Earnshaw, and newly commissioned spoken word by Rosie May Jones.
Rooted in local history, shaped by contemporary voices and looking boldly towards the future, this is a pageant for today.
And the experience extends beyond the main performance.
The morning performance will be preceded by a pre-show community stage featuring local performers, while the afternoon performance will be followed by a post-show community stage celebrating even more local talent.
So whether you come for the pageant, the music, the community performances — or simply to experience something unique with the people of Dorking — there really is something for everyone.
And best of all, it’s completely free!
(booking strongly advised!)
When? Sunday 4 October 2026
Morning session
11am to 11.55am: community performances around the grounds(or inside our marquee, subject to weather)
12pm: Whose Green and Pleasant Land? performance
Afternoon session
2:30pm: Whose Green and Pleasant Land? performance
followed by: community performances around the grounds(or inside our marquee, subject to weather)
A Promenading Pageant!
Please note that this is a promenade performance, which means there is no seating and the audience will instead stand amongst the performance. Seating will, of course, be provided for anyone who has an access need that means they are unable to stand for the duration of the performance.
This project is generously supported by:
Leith Hill Place
National Trust
Arts Council England
Vaughan Williams Foundation
Easy Marquee Hire
Mole Valley District Council
Surrey County Council - Your Councillor Community Fund
www.damncheek.co.uk
