New Sketches for 2007

PACKING UP

Albert and Betty and their two children, Harriet and Billy go on their summer holidays to Blackpool. They come back to the awful news that their two-up, two-down house in town has been compulsorily purchased under the town's redevelopment scheme. Packing Up traces their move to a new life on one of the town's council estates, with all the challenges, upheavals and pitfalls this entails.

The Rural Trilogy

Rural Ramble

In nineteenth century Cumberland a prospecting geologist enters into conversation with a local toll-gate keeper. He tells her that he is going on a walking tour of the lakes looking for suitable iron ore sites - and sleeping under the stars. When he doesn’t return after a few days the toll-gate keeper and her husband become worried about him and raise the alarm. A search party is formed but to no avail - he cannot be found. However, a week later he shows up, bedraggled, but unarmed - with an interesting tale to tell.

Rural Retreat

Set against the changing face of Cumbrian farming in the aftermath of the foot and mouth crisis in 2001.
A traditional Cumbrian hill-farming couple encounter a new neighbour - an ootener- who has bought the farm next door and views running a hill-farm totally differently from them. She intends to put the land available to a variety of different uses. A rear-guard action is the order of the day

Hill farmers Myrtle and Rannerdale Greenup

Being rudely awakened by Mrs Penelope Cranleigh-Moorhouse who has just bought the hill farm next door.

Yam Frae Yam Miner's Lamp Theatre goes multi-lingual. Norwegian added to Cumbrian/English dramatic mix. The story unfolds in a boarding house in the Lake District where the landlady, Mrs Raynor, finds herself, unwittingly, taking part in a Europe-wide experiment. Peoples with common cultures and histories are being encouraged to forge new and beneficial links. Will Mrs Raynor's Norse-based Cumbrian be enough to enable her to communicate with Harald, a Norwegian guest at her boarding house who doesn't speak any English ?

Playlets and Sketches with strong Cumbrian themes for all venues and occasions