A nod to contemporary culture here, with the first of two plays by Keith Dewhurst from the trilogy by Flora Thompson, all of which were drawn on for a recent television production using the full name, Lark Rise to Candleford. Our production had a huge cast, and it was presented in semi-“promenade” style (full promenade would have been impracticable in our theatre), with the action taking place in a cleared front section of the auditorium as well as on the stage.
I played 2 quite different characters: Boamer, one of the villagers, which allowed me to accentuate my natural (albeit normally barely perceptible) West Country accent (despite this play being set in Oxfordshire!), without being too “ooh-arr”; the other one was the village Squire, so much harrumphing required here! I had to sing a rather silly song as this character, which was fun, but I did have to execute an extremely quick change back into my Boamer outfit at the end of this scene!