We love an Eastern Angles Theare Production: they excel at regional stories bringing them to life with creative, expressive theatre, work with community groups and tour their productions around East Anglia for all to enjoy.
‘The Go-Between’ is this summer’s touring production and it kicked off with an open-air performance at the Food Museum (https://foodmuseum.org.uk/) in Stowmarket. A first-time visit to the Food Museum for me and I didn’t realise the size and offerings – I definitely plan to visit during opening hours to have a look around their 84 acres.
The outdoor space was a remarkably fitting backdrop for staging of ‘The Go-Between.’ L.P. Hartley’s haunting 1953 novel opens with the iconic line, “The past is a foreign country”, and sitting, watching the sky shift into dusk, you couldn’t help but feel transported to that stifling, fateful Norfolk summer of 1900.
Ben Musgrave’s brilliant new adaptation captures the heat, tension, and quiet heartbreak of Hartley’s classic, and with our recent run of heatwaves it wasn’t difficult to imagine.
The story centres on Leo Colston as he finds his diary from when he was 13 years old and pieces together his long-buried memory. A memory which he had shut down as it changed the direction of his life.
Photo Credits – Mike Kwasniak.
At thirteen, he was guest at the grand Brandham Hall, and finds himself recruited to carry secret love letters between the upper-class Marian Maudsley and Ted Burgess, a local tenant farmer. What starts as a naïve, exciting summer adventure for a boy desperate to impress his wealthy hosts slowly unspools into a devastating web of class conflict, deceit, and lost innocence and ultimately tragic consequences.
The scenes drifts between Leo as an adult trying to remember and process what happened, offering reflective commentary on his past naivety and explaining how his younger self misinterpreted adult behaviour, and the real events of that long hot summer.
It’s always difficult to jump timelines in a play without confusing the audience, however this performance did not blur these boundaries for two main reasons: the reflective commentary scenes gave a dreamlike, enchanted feel with a more physical performance from the cast, clearly defining Leo’s conversations with his mind as he deals with his past trauma. Secondly, the outstanding performance from Howard Saddler from an old man into a boy. Howard delivers a deeply moving performance as the older Leo looking back on his youth, and a young innocent care free boy. Howard’s facial features and physicality went from young to old and back again without fault. It was wonderful to watch.
To be fair however, all the cast were excellent, the dynamic between them is wonderful, their character portrayals were fabulous and completely drew you into the story. I had almost forgotten we were outside with a simple stage setting with only a few props and sound effects – everything had me absorbed, I was completely captivated and absorbed by the performance. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cast:
Howard Saddler – Leo Colston
Emily Outred – Mrs Maudsley
Jack Solloway – Ted Burgess
Hilary Greatorex – Marian Maudsley
Issac Franklin – Marcus Maudsley
Jake Ashton-Nelson – Hugh Trimingham
Sophie Crawford – Balladeer
Photo Credits – Mike Kwasniak.
