SHAKE is delighted to announce the green light on a development project for a production of Akenfield on stage. This will be the first time Ronald Blythe’s iconic portrait of a Suffolk village has been developed for the theatre.
Artistic Director Jenny Hall is to host a series of three collaborative theatrical workshops from mid-June. The workshops will involve a collective reading from the book, sharing histories, singing folk songs, and bringing Blythe’s much-loved chronicle of rural history up to date. The workshops will take place in Charsfield, Dallinghoo and Pettistree village halls.
Hall will work alongside award-winning playwright Tallulah Brown and Suffolk folk star Finn Collinson. The workshops are designed to bring together local people, professional actors and musicians to reactivate the Akenfield project which Blythe first began in 1967, and to help create a new version of it for the stage.
The aim is to faithfully update and adapt the original book and screenplay with contemporary stories, music and oral history, gleaned from the input of local people and their communities. Everyone local is invited to attend the workshops free of charge, and their insights and recollections of village life will help push the project forward. SHAKE is also inviting Garrow and Helen Shand, and Barbara Ashfield, who played starring roles in the film of Akenfield.
Also present will be the University of East Anglia education professor Dr John Gordon, who in 2019 created a local schools project for BBC Radio Suffolk titled Akenfield Now, following a significant Heritage Lottery grant. And last but not least will be Ian Collins, Ronald Blythe’s literary executor and biographer.
This project marks the first time the rights have been granted for a stage adaptation of Ronald Blythe’s classic of rural life. “I understand just what a great honour it is, and what a precious heritage we are entrusted with’ says Hall, whose father Peter directed the film of Akenfield in 1974 and who has been driven to create this work in the year of the film’s 50th anniversary.
“So many films are being made into stage productions these days, especially if they’re based on beautifully written books. I think people really value the experience of live performance – and its ephemeral nature is well suited to this record of a vanishing way of life.”
The resulting play will be produced by SHAKE, the Saxmundham-based community interest company that runs SHAKE Festival. “We hope our production will offer opportunities for employment to local performers and technicians, and will contribute to East Suffolk’s visitor economy,” says Hall.
The workshops have been funded with grants awarded by three local East Suffolk councillors, the UEA Heritage Lottery Grant, and the Suffolk Community Foundation.
SHAKE’s festival weekends and readings have been funded by the Beaverbrook Foundation, Golsoncott Foundation, EDF Energy, The Backstage Trust, Knock on Wood, Mackintosh Foundation, Spectra Packaging, The Scarfe Trust, the UK Levelling Up Fund, various Suffolk Councils, and the generosity of several private patrons.
The workshops will take place on the following weekends in June:
1. Pettistree Village Hall – June 15th, 10am-1pm
2. Dallinghoo Village Hall – June 15th, 2pm-5pm
3. Charsfield Village Hall – June 22nd, 10am-1pm
This summer, SHAKE is also producing a reading of George Ewart Evans’ 1960 book of Suffolk agricultural history, The Horse in The Furrow.
They will perform a short version of the book, abridged by Jenny Hall and Katrin Williams (BBC Radio Book of the Week) at the Saxmundham Arts Festival on 8th June.
The reading stars Alex Jennings (The Crown, Mr Bates vs The Post Office), Charlie Haylock (voice coach on The Dig) and Barbara Ashfield (née Tilney, Akenfield), with supporting roles read by three local schoolboys: Xander Ridge, Noah Bayman and Malachy King. The reading is produced and directed by Jenny Hall. To register interest in SHAKE’s Akenfield on Stage Workshops, or to find out more, please feel free to contact Jenny or Liz at info@shakefestival.com or just turn up on the day.
SUFFOLK THEATRE 