A Time to Keep

Dorchester, 2007
Performed at The Thomas Hardye School, Dorchester
16th November to 1st December, 2007

This was a Dorchester Community Play production directed by Jon Oram and in association with Claque Theatre

As Dorchester faces the threat of Napoleonic invasion of the summer of 1804, a schoolmistress called Jenny Hodge proposes mounting a play about the town’s history, to entertain the troops and sustain civilian morale. Initially resistant, many of the women of the town become caught up in the project, including the youngest daughter of a distinguished Dorchester family (Mary Stickland), who uses the play as a cover for her romance with a young smuggler (Isaac Gulliver).

Starved of resources, the play’s costume makers become dangerously reliant on smugglers to provide contraband materials for the production, which becomes a front for a widespread black market operation. An eager theatre-goer, King George the Third promises to travel from his holiday home in Weymouth to attend the play. A limp young man, favoured by Mary Stickland’s parents, discovers her secret romance and informs on her lover to the excise officers, who raid the play and arrest the young smuggler, who threatens to expose the leading figures of the town.

With only two days to go before the opening of the play, its producers hatch a desperate plan to protect their project and their reputations. As the king arrives for the performance, Jenny, Isaac and Mary make startling discoveries about themselves and each other. The play ends with Mary making the most difficult decision of her young life.

“A spirit lifting evening of playfully told local history…a shared, imaginative experience, communicated with winning passion”

Guardian ****

“Wonderfully vivid with real characters… powerfully evocative of the way provincial England, far from the madding crowd is still deeply haunted by its own past”

Sunday Times ***

“…an incredibly moving experience.”

Western Gazette