6 February – 14 March

There can hardly be a more appropriate space than the Watermill Theatre for revisiting Flora Thompson’s elegy to a lost England. Like the later work Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, biographical elements are used to give a narrative to the lives of communities during times of change. The Watermill Theatre is itself a relic of an England powered in its industry by the simple forces of nature, something we are reminded of as we cross the mill-race into the auditorium.

 Tamsin Kennard’s adaption of Thompson’s work is however, like the book, more than a panegyric to a lost world of community and its connection to the land and changing seasons. The character of Laura (Jessica Temple) like Flora Thompson herself, is a young woman whose education makes her determined not to be constrained by the circumstances of her birth and community. Candleford and Candleford Green, where the young Laura is taken on as an assistant in the post office by the formidable Dorcas Lane (Rosalind Ford), thus represent the expanding horizons of a young woman of intelligence and ambition. No less does it represent a move away from the land into an expanding urban environment and the process of societal changes that brought about pressures on a class system that had prevailed from as far back as people could remember.

 Kennard, who is also composer and musical director, with director, Bryn Holding, have shown a culture based in a common dependence on the land and expressed in music and dance. Last night, perhaps with the extra adrenaline of a press night, I found the musical numbers a little too exuberant, with more of the professional vim about them than the relaxed joy of the common man and woman. That said one can only admire the excellent cast who are all adaptable enough to pick up an instrument and help drive the scenes along.

 Jessica Temple gives us a Laura fit to burst with ambition and energy who yet can register what she perceives has been lost by separation from her roots, wistfully lamenting the loss of ‘earth and air’. She is just the sort of character we as an audience want to see succeed.

 Anna Kelsey’s evocative set seems to grow out of the structure of the theatre giving us the feeling that we are part of the story as it is being told. Her costumes along with touches of imagination from the director, for example in the cycling scene, evoke a pleasing sense of period.

In times of rapid change it does us all good to be reminded of what is gained and what is lost in the process. Flora Thompson may have been writing about a different epoch, yet her aspirations and concerns find echoes in our own times giving us all food for thought.

★★★★☆   Graham Wyles   11 February 2026 

Photographers credit @ Pamela Raith