Bliss in the country?

Feb 24 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

PLAYWRIGHT Mary Cooper came to Northumberland to find out what the locals thought of village life in the county. She talked to DAVID WHETSTONE about her new play, premiering tonight

“There’s the loss of post offices, schools, doctors’ surgeries and vicars. The vicarages are being sold because the Church of England needs the money and often these have been where the Brownies met or the church fete happened, so there’s suddenly a big hole in the social centre of the village. Pubs have closed and garages, and although it’s happening all around the country I felt in Northumberland it’s happened more suddenly and is coupled with this steep rise in property prices.”

Mary says the “old fashioned issue of boundaries” is alive and well, with disputes over where gardens end and common land begins. But a new phenomenon has entered the equation – the wind farm.

“Now there’s this new dispute over the use of the land,” Mary says.

Having talked to locals rich and poor, and to the “blow-ins” – those in-comers drawn by the prospect of a rural idyll – Mary devised a list of characters for her cast of five and the plot (based on a Best Village contest) of what she describes as a serious comedy set in the fictional Northumberland village of Aldale.

There are Toby and Rachel, newcomers from London who have bought the village chapel and school; then there are Margaret and Colin, up from a big provincial city to settle in the incongruous suburban-style 80s home. There are “the people from The Dene, the council estate, who are pretty much just getting by”; and there’s the “Lord of the Manor”, another London in-comer.

On the plus side, Mary says she found most real people she met extremely helpful and friendly.

A Village Life is at Alnwick Playhouse tonight and tomorrow before touring. Call Alnwick box office: 01665 510 785.

For details visit www.northumberlandtheatre.co.uk