Under the Greenwood Tree

Published Monday 5 October 2009 at 10:40 by Andrew Blades

Readers of Hardy’s novels will have come across the tradition of mummers’ plays, seasonal folk productions put on by touring villagers. One of the many delights of this new adaptation of Under the Greenwood Tree is its fidelity to that world and time. Spirited wassailing, barn dances round the cider press and an inspired script that retains much of the wonderful Wessex dialect make this Dorset Corset production a rare gem.

The central romance between Fancy Day and Dick Dewy is given great warmth and good humour. Fancy (Isabelle King) flutters between head and heart throughout and can just as well play the minx as the muse, one minute castigating Dick for wearing a shabby waistcoat, the next cooing at him to offer her a ride in his trap. Dick (Ryan Saunders) is thoroughly likeable, the archetypal farm boy next door. We want them to succeed and Hardy’s atypical happy ending ensures that for once, we leave the theatre smiling.

Not that the play is mere entertainment. Helen Davis’ adaptation teases out the moral riddles of the original text, and laces the bonhomie with caustic folk wisdom and references to the harsher side of rustic living. Class is also inevitably an issue, as Christopher Talman’s Reverend Maybold and the wealthy landowner Shiner (Ed Burnside) vie for Fancy’s affections. But this is mostly feel-good comedy of the first order - a theatrical toddy to warm the spirit through the autumn months.