Black Sheep is a beautifully written and perfectly crafted observation of modern farming life. Brought to us by Curious Directive - a Norwich based, internationally renowned theatre company - it’s not a great surprise that Black Sheep is set on a windswept North Norfolk farmstead. However, it’s fair to say that it could, in truth, be set upon almost any farm within the country; as it portrays the passions, frustrations and day to day traumas and tribulations of maintaining a working livestock farm.
We first meet the Carter family on a wet Good Friday morning, Easter 2025. They are gathered around the old family farmhouse kitchen table and discussing the issues they have faced - and continue to face - in the running of their tenancy farm.
Climate change, flooding, and overfarming have stripped the soil of it’s nutrients. Livestock aren’t thriving as they should, their rent keeps rising and tha family cannot seem to fathom a positive way forward without bickering and resentment.
Bonnie and Maggie inherited the tenancy when their father passed away, and with Bonnie’s health failing, her elder son Peter has stepped up to the role of head of the farm. Peter likes to do things in a methodical and traditional way, working tirelessly in all weathers. In a bid to attempt to improve the quality of their land, he has employed a young female student who specialises in the study of the soil - and while Peter can be a hot headed, even sometimes brusque character, he clearly has a softer inclination towards Afsaneh and we see their relationship slowly deepen.
His brother, Elias, plays less of a role as much of his time is taken up as pastor of the local church and he tends to mediate between Peter and his cousin Hannah - a strong willed and fiesty young woman - who has more modern plans for the farm, going forward. Hannah’s mother, Maggie, feels quite torn between the traditional and the modern and she clearly struggles to maintain peace between the whole family. She obviously wants to support her ailing sister, but also feels the motherly nature to encourage and nurture Hannah’s plans.
Much against Peter’s wishes, the family have already diversified the business by providing an Airbnb style home within the windmill on the farm, and an American mother and son have come to stay over the wet Easter weekend. Rachel and Bart are quite taken with the farm and can also see the potential for the stricken soil as the perfect ground to grow vines, and so they make their offer to take the tenancy over and set up their aspiring business…. with considerable consequences that will need to be faced in the coming years.
Directed by Jack Lowe and Craig Hamilton, Black Sheep brilliantly portrays a realistic, slow - and sometimes painful - unravelling of this small farmstead and is an enlightening example of how deeply the emotions of sharing your work, history, identity and life so closely with your family can affect the future.
As with all family sagas, there are also moments of warmth, love and happiness and huge credit should be given to the six actors whose performances are exceptional, displaying truthful emotions and giving their characters real substance and strength.
Black Sheep is running at The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, from 5th - 8th November.
