Lark Rise

This production came out of a moment of inspiration when the Director saw the Poultry Yard at Coleshill Village Estate for the first time, and realised that it would be the perfect setting for Keith Dewhurst’s adaptation of Flora Thompson’s “Lark Rise to Candleford”.  This tale of life in a quintessential Oxfordshire village in the late nineteenth century was written about a place just like this, and the company transported us back almost 150 years to the first day of the harvest in the village of Lark Rise.  The story is told from the personal perspective of the author, renamed Laura Timms in the play, and it takes the form of a series of brief scenes based on her recollections.  The narrative thread isn’t especially strong, so the success of the piece depends on its evocation of time and place, on the rapid establishment of character in the context of short vignettes, and on the forging of a tight-knit community which draws the audience in.  The last of these, of course, is something which Faringdon Dramatic Society does particularly well.

The Poultry Yard is a generous space ringed by single storey, stone-built walls and outbuildings. No direct use was made of these, but the context they provided was magnificent, and of course the stone walls helped tremendously with the acoustics.  As the evening drew in the lights around the yard highlighted some of the stonework and shrubs to magical effect, while most of the action played out under a handful of stage lamps in the area immediately in front of the audience.

The setting was of course wholly authentic, and the properties had been well chosen to maintain the period feel.  The itinerant trader Cheapjack’s cart was particularly good, laden with a modest selection of bric-a-brac which clinked and clanked as the cart was dragged over the bumpy ground before Cheapjack tried to pass off his wares as “quality”.  The costumes were similarly critical to time and place, and there were plenty of smocks and pairs of trousers secured with string amongst the agricultural workers, even if some of the smocks were suspiciously clean.  The women wore full skirts in natural fabrics and muted colours, sometimes topped off with white aprons.  But the costumes were also very effective at establishing class boundaries: Albert’s status as a stonemason was accentuated by the fact that he wore a coarse suit to work, while the housekeeper at the Big House was amongst those sporting the brighter colours that those with a bit more money could afford.

The emotional heft of the play was enhanced by the incidental music: for example, the reading of the Roll of Honour in the final scene, set some 30 years after the rest of the play, was preceded by the company quietly singing “The Day Thou Gavest”, accompanied on an accordion.  Familiar surnames feature prominently on the roll, until finally we got to E. Timms; the idea that this young lad, who we feel we have come to know playing innocently in the fields of rural Oxfordshire, should have met a violent end was both shocking and poignant.  More generally the singing was supported by folksy violin playing, and the overall quality of the unison singing was very impressive, with many members of the company demonstrating that they could both hold a line and shape a phrase.

The Roll of Honour wasn’t quite the end.  The evening closed with a Circle Dance performed by the whole ensemble, with the audience invited to join in for the reprise.  There was no way I was doing that, but then a member of the ensemble spotted me and I realised that resistance was futile.  With some support and guidance, I was talked through the steps and promenades, and suddenly realised that I was having a terrific time.  The company had succeeded in drawing me into their world, in making me a part of their community, and suddenly I understood with new clarity what it must have been like to have lived your life in a place like Lark Rise.  I believe I may have remarked that a previous production by Faringdon Dramatic Society was community theatre at its finest.  This presentation of “Lark Rise” continued what is becoming a proud tradition.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.