THEATRE REVIEWS

Take a theme based on a catastrophic event. In this case an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in cattle, add the stress on the farmer and the family involved, bring in the army under the control of the government and then introduce a variable and you get Alex Jones play Fields of Gold. If you are lucky you get a masterpiece, if not you have created a soap opera.

Set against Jessica Curtis' design of farmhouse and field, with direction by Laurie Sansom, the cast go about their daily tasks against the gunfire in the distance. Ben (Colin MacLachlan) is a farmer with normal farming problems, who lives with his long suffering wife Mags (Susan Twist) in a farm showing the signs of financial strain. They have to endure Lily (Judy Wilson) Ben's mother who is in and out of Alzheimer's disease. The children, a girl Jule (Claire Lams), who has made the effort to qualify herself in the basics of farming, is hoping to run the farm and Jem (Andrew Turner) still at school, who has trouble with his sexuality and no interest in the farm. Dave (Andrew Brooke) a squadd'y with the army based nearby, has taken an interest in Jule and throws her into confusion with decisions. Strain is the overriding factor, as the play touches on everything that could possible go wrong, resulting in a predictable ending.

As a record of what happened at this time this play fulfils the brief, but it never takes you into areas that you never envisaged to give you surprise. The audience sat and remembered the days that the army went heavy handedly onto farms and did what the government had ordered them to do. It made them think before they made their way home to reflect. © BA

“Fields of Gold” is at the Round in Scarborough from the 28th October to the 20th of November, 2004.