Lark Rise to Candleford

Flora Thompson was born in an Oxfordshire hamlet in 1876. She left school at 14 and went to work as a clerk in a small village post office until her marriage to John Thompson. She is perhaps best remembered for her semi-autobiographical trilogy which evokes, through childhood memories in the person of Laura, in a vanished world of agricultural customs and rural culture in England of the 1880s. Keith Dewhurst has adapted the trilogy into two plays "Lark Rise" which erects the first day of harvest from sunrise to sunset and, in contrast, "Candleford", which depicts a day in midwinter - to give a lively picture of typical country life of the period with music and songs. Commissioned by the National Theatre, the plays can be produced in a "promenade" style where audience and actors freely mix. With a flexible range of characters and a minimum of stage props, this play could be of value with amateur drama groups.