by Frank Harvey

21 - 30 October 2010

This sad romantic play is an adaptation of a short story by Thomas Hardy. It is set in Hardy country, Dorset, in the home of a wealthy brewer, Arthur Harnham, and his unhappy younger wife Edith. The arrival of a fair with a new-fangled steam carousel is the cause of much excitement among the young maids in the house, one of whom, Anna, meets a young man from London. When she receives a letter from him, she confesses to Edith that she cannot read, nor write. The kindly Edith agrees to act as Anna’s shadow by writing to the young man, a barrister named Charles Bradford. Soon, Edith and Charles are exchanging love letters – he still believing hers come from Anna. Anna is found to be pregnant and Charles comes to marry her. On that day, he discovers he has been deceived and is bound, not to the educated woman to whom he has been writing, but to a pretty, illiterate peasant. The play ends on a beautifully sad note. Take your handkerchiefs.