Dare Devil Rides To Jarama

“To you we speak, you numberless Englishmen,

To remind you of the greatness still among you

Created by these men who go from your towns

To fight for peace, for liberty and for you.”

Clem Beckett and Christopher Caudwell were such men. Moved by most Spaniards’ determination to defend themselves against Franco’s rising fascist army, they crossed the Pyrenees, like so many other volunteers that recognised the defence of Spanish democracy against fascism was their fight too.

Clem ‘Dare Devil’ Beckett, the rugged Speedway star, and Caudwell, literary critic, poet and aeronautical expert, were considered unlikely friends; but a common cause brought them together and they died at their machine gun post covering their battalion’s retreat at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937.

Commissioned by The International Brigades Memorial Trust,“Dare Devil Rides To Jarama” is a new play by Neil Gore that tells the story of the British and Irish volunteers at the beginning of the brutal Civil War in Spain, and captures the raw passions and emotions of idealism and despair, hope and anger, determination and fear, through powerful storytelling, stirring songs and poetry and flamenco dance.