With The Players: Act 1, Amy Sparkes transports readers to the playhouses and muddy roads of Elizabethan England. The book follows the Ticehurst Players, a ragged troupe of wandering actors whose performances teeter between theatrical triumph and humiliating disaster. As a sucker for historical fiction, and having seen the beautiful cover art, I had a strong inclination I would love this book, and frankly was not left dissapointed.
The novel opens with Thomas, dressed as Titania, fleeing the Red Lion inn under a barrage of rotten vegetables—a scene that perfectly encapsulates the book’s blend of comedy and drama. “Why was it an audience only seemed large when it was pissed off?” Thomas wonders, and this line sets the tone for a story which alternates mostly between the points of view of Thomas, Piero and Caroline. Each perspective sharpens the others: Thomas with his ambition, Piero with his vanity, and Caroline with her defiance. Together, they help keep the pacing fresh, each of the POVs having an instantly recognisable voice.
The Ticehurst Players are a compelling ensemble cast, each carrying their own quirks and dreams. Thomas embodies the eternal optimist, clinging to his Titania costume and declaring that “tomorrow, everything would be absolutely fine,” even as his father’s cruel words—”You’re naught but a failure”, echo in his mind. Caroline is the troupe’s fierce protector, sharp-tongued and sword-ready, yet haunted by traumatic memories that surface in several scenes. Her loyalty to Robert, their brooding manager, anchors the group even as she clashes with Thomas’s grandiose ambitions. Annie provides gentle counterpoint as the fiddler whose music binds them together, offering tonics that might “raise your spirits or kill you completely—could go either way.”
Robert himself is perhaps the most tragic figure of the novel, weighed down by past betrayals and clutching a rabbit’s foot charm as his faith in the troupe crumbles. His relationship with the vengeful Piero, a former company member turned nemesis, provides some of the novel’s darker undercurrent. Piero himself struts through taverns like a malevolent peacock, understanding that “a peacock knows his audience, and he commands them,” while harboring a cruel obsession with destroying his former companions.
For a debut, this book is exceptionally edited and written in general, and it’s no surprise, as apparently the author runs writing workshops and has written for TV. Sparkes excels at balancing farce and comedic elements with genuine pathos. Her prose moves with an actor’s timing, knowing exactly when to linger, when to cut, and when to deliver a punchline. Even in its most chaotic moments, the plot feels well thought-out and structured.
In addition, Sparkes’s writing has a theatrical quality that suits her subject matter perfectly. She weaves Shakespearean quotations throughout the narrative, not as mere decoration or to show off but as thematic anchors that remind us of their timelessness. The dialogue crackles with wit, while descriptive passages conjure the grimness of Elizabethan life with vivid sensory detail, reminding us that history should be looked back on with nostalgia as much as honesty about its hardships and poverty. I found all the characters very relatable despite obviously having nothing in common with them.
As Sparkes writes in the dedication, The Players: Act 1 is dedicated to “struggling performers of all kinds… who have found their lives made harder by the prejudices and mores of a broken and unequal society,” and this dedication resonates through every page. The novel explores themes of artistic ambition versus survival, the bonds that form between outcasts, and the question of what keeps people performing when the world offers only mockery in return. Such questions feel newly relevant in the present age for obvious reasons.
At 335 pages (although there are no page numbers in the manuscript for some reason?), The Players: Act 1 ends with a flourish, leaving its audience wanting more, like any good performance. Sparkes has set her stage with humour, heartbreak, and no shortage of rotten cabbages, and we can only await the next act to see whether the Ticehurst Players stumble into triumph or tumble further into chaos.
Final verdict: With its blend of dark humor and Shakespearean flair, The Players: Act 1 offers a vivid portrait of artists struggling against the odds. It’s a rollicking yet poignant tale that will appeal to fans of historical fiction, theater, and the recent book/movie Hamnet. A real story for all the dreamers out there, even when the world hurls cabbages at their dreams.
You can get your copy of “The Players: Act 1” here!
