Lark Rise to Candleford Education Pack
This education pack is
designed for years 10 –13 and contains a selection of tools and materials for
use with your class, having watched a performance of either one of the plays.
1.
Class room
exercises
b)Close
reading of a scene from the play
c)
Responses to the production / Critical analysis of the production.
2.
Drama games
relating to the production.
Performing
in “Promenade”
Montage
work
Character
work.
3.
Background
material on the plays and production.
Playwright
Directors
Stage
Manager
Actors
Audiences
Class Exercises
1. Lark Rise is a memory
play, showing a way of life and experience from a remembered childhood. Write a
short piece about your childhood, as you remember it. You might want to
include,
Interesting characters you knew.
What your environment was like.
Any experiences that were particularly
powerful/scary/happy/sad or moving.
How you had fun.
How you learnt about the world.
What you remember that no longer exists.
What you did not understand at the time.
2. Lark Rise and Candleford
contain imagined meetings between people that actually existed in real
life. Write a scene imagining a meeting between two people that you have known
in real life. Think about,
How did these people speak?
How
can you convey this in how you write down what they say?
What would these two people talk about?
What do these two characters want?
What are they doing to achieve this?
Is there a problem in the scene?
How is this problem resolved?
3. In Lark Rise to Candleford Flora Thompson mixed together real
life people that existed in order to create imaginary characters. Create a new
character made up from elements of people you know, and then write a monologue
for them. You might want to think about,
What elements in people you have known are particularly
interesting?
What elements might fit together well?
How old is this character?
Where do they live?
What do they want in life?
And in the monologue,
Who are they talking to?
Why are they speaking to them?
What do they want?
What are they doing to achieve this?
How does this person speak? (long words? Short words?
Long or short sentences?)
4. The plays Lark Rise and Candleford were written by
Keith Dewhurst from Flora Thompson’s famous trilogy of books. Think about what
decisions the playwright made to adapt the books for the stage, and then plan a
play based on a book you have read. You might want to think about,
As an author, what can you do in a novel that is
difficult on the stage?
As a playwright, what can you do on the stage that is
difficult in a novel?
What do you think works well in a novel?
What do you think works well in a play?
Are you going to cut parts of the book? If so, how will
you choose which parts? Which parts will it be important to keep?
How does a writer convey information in a novel?
How can you convey information on the stage?
Close Reading of a scene from the play
In this scene, the farm
workers gather on a harvest morning.
Bishie: Morning,
Boamer. Morning, Master Tuffrey.
Boamer: Morning, Bishie.
Old David: Morning, young Bill.
[Tom Gaskin, nicknamed
Pumpkin, comes out of his cottage.]
Boamer: Morning, Pumpkin.
Pumpkin: Morning, lads.
Bishie: Think weather’s a-gooin’ to hold?
Pumpkin: Till us get ‘un all in?
Bishie: Aye.
Pumpkin: Aye.
Old David: Course it’s a-gooin’ to hold.
[Albert Timms
walks in the opposite direction, towards the town. He would pass the men without
speaking and they know it. They nudge each other and point.]
Bishie: Look ‘ee who’s here.
Boamer: Think he’ll not speak nor nothin’?
Bishie: No. Not him.
[Albert Timms
walks past them without speaking. Then Pumpkin calls after him.]
Pumpkin: Morning, Mr Timms.
Albert: [Stops and turns] Tom Gaskin?
Pumpkin: Aye.
Albert: Morning. Morning all.
Old David: Morning.
Albert: Morning. [He
manages a nod and a smile for Old David. Then he strides off]
Bishie: Now let me
ask you, Master Tuffrey – did you ever, in all your draggin’ up, see a man so
stinking with pride?
Boamer: Bricklayer calling himself a stonemason.
Old David: Say what us will, I respect his missus.
Pumpkin: Aye. Oh
aye. But all the same she says his family kept an hotel in Oxford; but my wife’s cousin knowed for a fac’ it
weren’t more nor a pot-house.[i]
[They men laugh. Old
Price appears from his house]
Old Price: Morning, David.
Old David: Morning.
Old Price:
Morning, boys.
Boamer: Morning,
Master Price. Think weather’s a-gooin’ to hold?
Old Price:
Till we get ‘un in? Course it’s a gooin’ to hold.
Pumpkin: It’ll hold
fer you, Master Price, what’s seen a few harvest in your time.
Old Price:
I have, Pumpkin: and I hope I’ll see a girt lot more.
[They all laugh.]
Bishie: Look us
all here now. Bailiff’s a-waiting’.
[Other men are
congregating in the yard of the manor farm. The bailiff, Mr Morris, is a
tall, shrivelled nutcracker-faced old fellow swishing an ash stick[ii].
The men call him ‘Old Monday Morning’.]
Morris: Hi men! Ho
men! Monday morning. What do you reckon you’re doing?
Pumpkin: They’re
all a-coomin up, Muster Morris!
Voices: Morning, Sam. Morning, Cockie.
Morris: Monday
morning. Hi men! Ho men![iii]
Be ye deaf, or be ye hard of hearing, dang ye? Hurry up men!
Bishie: Hark at
Old Monday Morning!
Morris: Hi men!
Ho! Call this harvest morning? Today’s Monday, tomorrow’s Tuesday, next day’s
Wednesday – half the week gone and nothing done!
Fisher: Us’ve
harnessed every team up, Muster Morris!
[As Mr Morris turns his back to look at Fisher,
Boamer points at him with one hand and with the other slaps his own
buttocks]
Boamer: My elbow
to you, you old devil![iv]
Morris: What’s
that? What’s that?
Boamer: Just a-asking
this little gallass[v] here what’s
the matter, Muster Morris.
[The gallass is a youth named Fisher]
Fisher: Got my
boots wet, Boamer – now ‘um dried as stiff as boards.
Old Price:
Boots? Good thing you didn’t live when breeches were made o’ leather.
Bishie: Have
patience, Remember Job.
[Laughter]
Fisher: Job? What
did he know ‘bout patience? He didn’t have to wear no leather breeches.
[His quickness draws a
mildly jeering response.]
Morris: Hi men! Ho
men! Now men! We’ll put the mechanical reaper in Gibbard’s Piece. Will your
boots stop you driving the team, young Fisher?
[Muttered voices]
Bishie: He’s young
job!
Pumpkin: Wooman’s
work!
Boamer: Well, he’s
nothin’ nor a boychap!
Fisher: I’ll see
what I can do, Muster Morris, sir. [Exits]
Morris: I’ll send
the women’s gang to bind up after you. Mrs Spicer? Ho, Mrs Spicer!
Mrs Spicer: Here I be, Muster Morris! [Mrs Spicer,
the leader of the women’s gang, is formidable in a pair of her husband’s
corduroy trousers.]
Morris: Hi there! Ho there! What?
Old Price: Speak up, Mrs Spicer.
Mrs Spicer: Eh?
Bishie: Monday Morning can’t hear you.
Old Price: You’re as hoarse as a crow.
Pumpkin: As ugly as sin, more like.
Mrs Spicer: You rub your moth with salt, young Pumpkin!
[The men thoroughly
appreciate this exchange]
Morris: Gibbard’s
Piece[vi],
Mrs Spicer! Gibbard’s Piece! Now men. Hi men! We’ll set to with the scythes in
Hundred Acre Field. What d’you think of that?
Bishie: Set us
more than us can do and us’ll do it!
Pumpkin: You’ll not
never need them jibberin’ old Irish gypsies this year, Muster Morris!
Morris: Farmer and
his wife have provided some good ale as usual and I’ll be riding round with it!
I’ll be riding, men! Have you chosen you King of the Mowers?
All: Aye! We
have that! Aye!
Morris: Who is it?
Bishie: Boamer!
[Cheers and a bit of
backslapping.]
Old Price: Wert up[vii],
Boamer, lad!
Boamer: Thank God
for having growed the corn up right, Muster Morris, for us’ll bring ‘un down
all right, eh, boys?
All: That is will! Good old Boamer!
Morris: You lead
the line, Boamer. You say when they rest. You say what drinks they take. Monday
morning![viii]
Ho there! Hi there!
Old Price: Come on Boamer, lad. On with your hat then! [They
put Boamer's flowered hat on him and then lift him on to their
shoulders. He is then handed a sickle and repeats the ritual rhyme.]
Rhyme: I have lawns, I have bowers
I
have fruit, I have flowers
And
the lark be my morning alarmer.
To
the parson his tithe
Here’s
good luck to the scythe
Success
and long life to the farmer.
[Cheering, the men
carry Boamer to the field, where they let him down and form up in a line
with their scythes.]
Boamer: Follow me, lads, for I’m your King of the
Mowers!
[Then they mow the
wheat field in line to the accompaniment of the ‘Harvest Work Song’]
Try to answer the questions. Give examples to back up
your answers.
How well do the
fieldworkers know each other?
What are they worried
about when they first meet?
Albert is a stone-mason
on his way to the bigger town. Why doesn’t he greet them at first?
How do the fieldworkers
feel about Albert?
Write down a list of the
characters in the scene, in order of age, starting with the eldest and finishing
with youngest. How can you tell their ages?
Who is Master Morris?
What does he do? How do the other men feel about him? Why might they call him
“Monday Morning”?
How do the men feel about
Mrs Spicer? Do you think it was usual for a woman to work in the fields?
What do you think the
“King of the Mowers” is? What might he do?
Who in the scene get on
particularly well? Why?
Who in the scene does not
get on very well? Why not?
Who are the important
characters in this scene? How can you tell?
Write a scene where a
group of school friends meet first thing in the morning. How well do they know
each other? What do they talk about? Who else do they meet? Who makes them get
to work?
Find out some facts about
the period:
What tools would the men
have used?
Would they have had
machinery?
How much did they earn in
a day’s work?
How many hours did they
work a day?
How young were they when
they began to work? How old when they retired?
Briefly try and answer
all of these questions. Try to make sure you write down something for every
question.
How did you feel as the
play was taking place around you?
Which characters in the
play did you empathise with? Why?
What was your favourite
moment in the play? Why?
What was your least
favourite moment in the play? Why?
Did you feel different at
the end of the play to how you felt beforehand? If so how?
What do you think you
will remember about this production?
Which characters did you
like? Why?
Which characters did you
not like? Why?
What did you learn from
the play?
What difference did it
make, having the actors moving around the audiences?
What did you think the
play was about?
This production did not
have a defined and separate space for the audience and the actors. Instead they
moved around each other in a “promenade” staging. Why do you think the
directors made this decision? What effect did it have on the plays? Was it
successful?
What did you feel the
themes of the plays were? How did the directors and actors try to bring these
out in the production? Were they successful?
Why do you think the
directors wanted to revive this production now? Although the play is set in the
past, did it make you think about the present day? In what way?
Lark Rise and Candleford
are both historical plays. How accurate was the set in terms of period? What do
you think the set designer wanted to achieve, and what decisions had he made?
What colours were used on
the set? What effect did they have?
Keith Dewhurst, the
playwright of Lark Rise to Candleford, decided to set each play over the
course of one day. Why do you think he did this, and what effect did it have?
Did it succeed?
How did the actors work
with, and use, the audience when performing? How did this make you feel? Did
you feel you were more involved in the production? Did you feel uncomfortable?
What other decisions had
the directors and playwright made? Why did they make these decisions? Were they
effective?
DRAMA GAMES RELATING TO THE PRODUCTION
Performing in Promenade
When
approaching Lark Rise and Candleford, the directors had to come
up with way in which the actors could get used to playing the scenes amongst an
audience, as they were aware that this would have a large effect on the style
of acting and the blocking of the scenes. They came up with a number of games
which would help the actors to enagage an audience that is all around them.
Eye
Contact and Audience contact
Sometimes
the performers would have to speak or act directly to and with an audience.
These games is designed to encourage eye contact and engagement.
GAME
ONE – BEEP BEEP
One
actor faces an audience and tells us a simple story.
The
audience then puts their hand in the air.
The
actor must then repeat the story, and try to make eye contact with each member
of the audience.
If
the actor makes eye contact with an audience member their hand is put back up
in the air as high as it can go. For all the time that the actor has not made
eye contact, the hand slowly falls.
If
an audience member’s hand falls completely, they must make a loud beeping sound
until eye contact has been made.
Try
experimenting with the speed at which hands fall. Make it difficult!
Try
putting the audience all around the actor so that they have to turn right round
to make eye contact.
GAME
TWO – THAT’S MY BROOM
The
group stands in a circle.
One
volunteer stands in the middle, holding a broom. She begins to persuade the
group that this is her broom, but she can only use the words “this is my
broom”.
After
about thirty seconds, a second volunteer steps into the circle. He tries to
persuade the group that this is in fact his broom, but he can still only
use the words “this is my broom”. He cannot touch the broom, or the other
volunteer, he must instead try to convince the group.
After
a couple of minutes the group votes on whose broom they think it was.
Volunteers
should try different tactics – try persuading the group/intimidating
them/bribing them/saddening them/boring them/scaring them.
What
works? How does eye contact matter in this game?
Take the scene from above
with the field-workers, and stage it end on, with an audience sat down, facing
the stage. Then stage it again, in promenade, with an audience that can walk
around the action.
Compare the two methods
in the following ways.
How can the actors
involve the audience? When do the actors ignore the audience, and when do they
speak to them? Can the audience themselves take on a role in the scene?
How much can the audience
see? Is important that they see everything? What does a director have to
consider when staging scenes, in order to ensure they are visible to as many
audience members as possible?
How much detail is
important?
During the scene the
characters go on a journey from the village to their place of work. How can you
show this journey? Is it possible to use the audience, or take them on a
journey themselves?
When you have staged the
scene, consider what effects you could only achieve in promenade. How did it
change your understanding of the scene?
How did you feel as an
audience member? Were you more or less engaged in the scene? Why?