Dulditch is the imaginary village created by Norfolk writer Mary Mann who chronicled rural lives and, while remaining fairly obscure, she has been described as the Thomas Hardy of East Anglia. It all sounds as if it has the potential to be a tad bleak, but it's actually played for laughs and the darkness is dealt with using black humour. Well, if you can't laugh at old women dying in their beds, what can you laugh at?  | | Patrick Knox as Angel |
The story centres around the arrival of servant Mary (played with flowing Pre-Raphaelite hair by Imogen Church) to help the widowered rector of Dulditch (one of many roles played by Gareth Hinsley). She effectively takes over the household from under the nose of the rector's sister Hannah (Rachel Spence) who has also moved in. Angel (Patrick Knox) is the stereotyped slow-witted villager , but the Angel of the title could also refer to Mary, Hannah or the rector's growing daughter Margaret. Margaret the baby appears as a rolled-up towel; Margaret the 5 year old infant is a faceless puppet operated by the other actors. Other leap-of-imagination props include the animals in the garden. It all looks a bit Blue Peter at first ("here are three chicks we made earlier from an old coat-hanger, three yellow feathers and some sticky-back plastic!"), but it works as long as you suspend your disbelief, which is after all what the theatre is all about. It also solves the age-old problem of trying to avoid working with animals and children. And you don't have to pay them, presumably.  | | Rachael Spence and Gareth Hinsley |
The story is mainly about class divisions in Victorian Britain. Gareth Hinsley's pompous rector naively tries to live off a farm labourer's wages for a week while spinsterish Hannah tries to avoid the attentions of those she considers to be below her. It's a nod to reality TV and reminded me of political commentator Matthew Parris' attempt to live on the dole when he was a Tory MP in the 1980's. Other threads are the comedy of Angel trying to persuade every woman in the village to marry him ( he's another who's wife has died), the rector's temptation to eat a stolen apple ( someone should tell him there's a book which covers that subject ) And of course sex rears its ugly head, as we find out who ends up with who.  | | Would You Like To Marry Me? |
There isn't a weak link among the cast. Special honours must go to Gareth Hinsley and Claire Vousden for convincingly playing so many characters without confusing the audience (at least seven each). All the cast had to stage-manage the production - moving props around, providing voice-only sound effects (owls, church bells, the wind. etc) and operating the puppet. The sheer cleverness of the production is very impressive. And, what with Eastern Angles being local, the accents don't end up in Devon. All in all, it's a triumph and well worth catching as it tours the region. The only sour point of the show I caught at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich was a mobile phone going off in the audience. The perpetrator may or may not have been the mother of one of the cast members ... Touring until 26th November 2005 - see the Eastern Angles website for full details or ring the box office on 01473 211498. | 
