I imagined John Blanke as a musician and storyteller; wearing his charisma, his virtuosity, his new Christianity, his mastery of yet another European language, like a richly-embroidered coat that he can never take off. It protects him from harm, at the cost of masking his true self.

I was so homesick there were tears standing in my eyes. But homesick for what?  For a feeling of belonging? For freedom to speak my feelings unchecked? 
 John Blanke, Act 1, Scene 15
The Trumpet & The King

And yet he triumphs.  He is a touchstone.  

For me John Blanke is the quintessential immigrant artist, and the immigrant artist walks alone. John shines at the court of two Tudor kings, but if he ever loses the king’s favour, like all immigrants there is no family net to break his fall. 

Playwrights like risk. There is plenty of risk in John’s story of success.

I grew up in Indonesia: a Muslim country, and I’m fascinated by Islam’s 800-year rule of Spain. Many scholars believe John came to England from Spain, giving him a breadth of cultural experience that was irresistible to me. That he was a court musician during the early days of Henry VIII’s wild, music-mad kingship gave me a context for friendship between these two young men at the intersection between talent and power.

During the writing of The Trumpet & The King (2019 - 2022), I realised that I needed a place for John and Henry to meet as equals.  The play is set in the afterlife.  In limbo they are two souls, trying to reconstruct the details of their youth, and every object they pick up plunges them back to a different memory, often with conflicting results.

I planted a betrayal at the heart of their story, and let it unfold from there.

I have now staged a prototype performance of this two-person play in summer of 2022: a tour of Northern Ireland followed in 2023.  Now I am planning to take the work beyond.

Andrea Montgomery
​Playwright & Director