[H]ere I Belong, a funny and moving play telling the life story of an elderly villager, will be coming to Theatre by the Lake from Thu 19 – Sat 21 April. In a unique theatrical experience, the Main House stage will be transformed into Elsie’s local village hall with all the action happening in and around the audience who will be seated at tables in cabaret-style.
The charming tale takes the audience through decades of British history seen through the eyes of Elsie celebrating her 90th birthday at the local hall, in a village where she has lived her whole life. She’s seen elections, weddings, wars, people coming and people going.
Company actors Melanie McHugh and Nathalie Barclay cleverly tell her life story over six decades, moving through time from the Coronation in 1953 to her birthday party today. And did we mention, there will also be cake!
Moving through the years, the décor and actors change as the audience is taken on an ‘intimate yet affecting journey’ (The Stage) through 60 years of village life and key moments in Elsie’s world. Richly written and ‘exceptionally authentic’ (BBC Radio Shropshire), the play also questions how external factors influence her life, such as governmental change, unemployment, cuts to public services and young people’s financial woes.
The play is written by Matt Hartley and brought to Keswick by acclaimed theatre company Pentabus, a rural theatre company who regularly visits village halls, fields and theatres across the country, reaching audiences of more than 20,000 people each year with their adaptable sets. Calling themselves the ‘nation’s rural theatre company’, their mission is to tell stories with local relevance and national impact.
Writer Matt Hartley won a Bruntwood Award with his first play, Sixty Five Miles, and has gone on to fulfil commissions for Hampstead Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, BBC Radio 4 and two plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Here I Belong runs at Theatre by the Lake from Thu April 19 to Sat 21 at 7.30pm, with an additional 2pm matinee performance on the Saturday. Tickets cost £15; U26s £5 and are available at theatrebythelake.com or by calling the Box Office on 017687 74411.
