“I was gripped by the fast pace, the intensity and the contrasting emotional colours...”
One of Potter's best known and best loved plays, Blue Remembered Hills follows the adventures of a group of 7 year olds one summer's day in war-time Britain - 1943. They fight, they play, they argue, bully, romp, joke, and cry - but these 7 year olds are all played by adults.
Potter intended that by using this device an audience could see innocence shot through with experience, the naivety of childhood juxtaposed with awareness of adulthood. Throughout Blue Remembered Hills the audience is drawn into the totally convincing world of childhood but see with horror, through adult eyes that the cruelties, alliances, manipulations and, yes, tragedies endured at 7 are no different from those experienced at 27, 47 or 67.
The play is set in the Forest of Dean (Potter's childhood home). Both set and staging create the perfect claustrophobic atmosphere for the 5 boys and 2 girls to meet and play in the constant shadow of war-time activities (aeroplanes, gunfire, sirens) and to indulge their own war against the fearful and tearful Donald whose tragic experiments with matches in the barn leads to chilling and thought-provoking climax to the play.
The company first staged Blue Remembered Hills in 2001, a hugely successful production which was toured to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Next Stage is delighted to be revisiting this play in 2007 with its original cast of seven actors.
Cast:
Rehearsal Photographs:
