With strong East Midlands roots and 50 years of rural touring experience, it is only to be expected that New Perspectives has a wealth of past productions that are centred around rurality and issues that concern rural communities. The following are just some of the plays with these themes.

All of these productions – plus many more which you can read about in our other blog posts here – are included in our 50^th anniversary postcard set which you can purchase on our online shop. We are a charity and the proceeds of our shop go towards the costs of keeping the company going, touring ambitious and transformative work to rural communities and theatres across the country, and towards the running of our artist and community development programmes, New Associates and Open Pitch.

Wasteland by Laura Lomas (2009)

In 2009 New Perspectives worked with Theatre Writing Partnership and Derby LIVE to launch the professional writing career of Laura Lomas with ‘Wasteland’ which was shortlisted for The Brian Way Award.

Set on a canal side near an impoverished housing estate on the outskirts of an otherwise affluent East Midlands’ market town, the play was a “gripping tale of revenge and redemption”.

New Perspectives Artistic Director at the time, Daniel Buckroyd said: “Wasteland is quite simply one of the freshest, most exciting debut plays I’ve ever read – complex, funny moving”.

In the play’s programme, Laura wrote: “Above all I hope the play expresses something of the truth in what it means to be from a rural community in this region, and what it is to live with all the difficulties, doubts, hopes and triumphs that come with growing up in this landscape.”

Besides being an incredible debut play, the tour of Wasteland had its own quirks as all rural tours do. In the show report from Friesland School, the stage manager reported that the “blood bag popped and sprayed contents over [the] front row of [the] audience”. And in Wadenhoe, one audience member told the tech crew afterwards that she had just had a pace-maker fitted – “she thought the gunshots ‘probably gave it a good work out’.

 

A Place with the Pigs by Athol Fugard (1998)

A Place with the Pigs was the first Athol Fugard play that New Perspectives programmed with the second being Playland in 2015 which you can read about in this blog post.

On programming the play, former Artistic Director Gavin Stride said: “I was keen to produce a piece for the spring that has all the quality and charm of a New Perspectives show and is also a dramatic piece of storytelling. A play that has the simplicity and potery of all great drama that will, I believe, be a funny and moving evening of theatre.”

The play follows Pavel who has been living in a pigsty among the pigs since the Second World War after his wife told the authorities he had been killed. When a local war memorial with his name on it is about to be unveiled, Pavel must decide if he should leave the pigsty and come clean, or not.

 

The Devil on the Heath by Tony Coult (1981)

Described as "a Fenland mystery with rock music" by The Hunts Post, The Devil on the Heath was performed at Half-Moon Theatre in London and it was feared it may be New Perspectives’, or Perspectives as we were known back then, last production due to a recent cut in funding. Fortunately, it wasn’t!

In rebuttal to a news article in the Evening Telegraph where the title was 'Local writer makes good' about the play moving to London, writer Tony Coult said: "Why is having a play in London "making good", and providing first-class entertainment to this city and region presumably not? Delighted as I am that Perspective Theatre Company's plays are clamoured for in the big city, I should like to emphasise that both the company and I are committed to theatre with local roots, and, as long as the support is there, that is where we stand."

The Devil on the Heath is one of two plays that Tony Coult wrote for New Perspectives, the other ‘A State of Health’ explored the mounting pressures at the NHS. You can read more about A State of Health here.

 

As Far as the Eye Can See (1974) 

Set in the Fens, As Far as the Eye Can See “trace[d] the history of a fictious fenland village and the influences which threaten its future”. The play was written to revive memories of a way of life that was fast disappearing.

The audience saved the show in Orton Malborne when the Key Perspectives team turned up for the performance without costumes! The company’s costumes which were worth around £300 had been stolen from the back of their car. So, 45 minutes before they were due to go on stage, the group had to ask the audience at Leighton Primary School if there were any clothes they could borrow for the performance. They were met with a willing response and the performance went on as planned.

 

Harvest by Richard Bean (2017)

Originally performed in 2005 at the Royal Court, Harvest by Richard Bean was celebrated by critics for bringing the countryside back to the stage.

In 2017, New Perspectives revived the play for a rural tour. The Stage journalist Pat Ashworth gave the play 4 stars and wrote: “With Brexit on the horizon, it’s a very timely revival indeed. And being able to see it in a village hall is the best thing of all: it really packs a punch”.

In the play’s programme, Jo Robinson, Associate Professor in Drama and Performance at University of Nottingham wrote: “Richard Bean's Harvest brings both humour and sadness to its portrayal of the changing relationships between family, land and labour on the 82 acres of Kilham Wold Farm from WWI to the present day.”

If you want to know more about Harvest, watch our chat with actors Elizabeth Twells and John Askew who performed in both Harvest and Darkness, Darkness by John Harvey together, and are now engaged!

 

Last Stop Louisa’s by Amanda Whittington (2000)

Last Stop Louisa’s was one of six shows that East Midlands-based playwright Amanda Whittington wrote for New Perspectives, including an adaptation of Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning which you can read more about here.

Set in a roadside American-style diner, the play was a “touching comedy drama [that] looks at one of the most pressing questions facing rural people – to stay or leave”. It was originally called ‘It Never Snows on Christmas Eve’ and was specially commissioned to celebrate the return of Lincolnshire to the East Midlands after a redefining of regional boundaries.

The play marked actor Michael Strobel’s 20th production with New Perspectives.

And, just to remind you of how much things have changed since 2000, one comment from Enderby Civic Centre read: “£2.50 is way too cheap!! Another very good evening’s entertainment”.

If you're interested to hear more about Amanda Whittington and the plays she wrote for New Perspectives, listen to our podcast episode with her here.

 

Dead Man’s Hat by Charles Way (1997)

Dead Man’s Hat was Charles Way’s second play with New Perspectives, his first being In the Bleak Midwinter in 1994.

The play was a western, a “gritty brutal tale […which] takes a hard look at the horrors which made America the country it is today” (Chad, 1997). Despite being a “gritty” and “brutal” play, it also encorporated “thigh-slapping country music” which aimed to build popularity of country music both nationally and within the East Midlands.

One of the venues, The Century Theatre, saw its first performance in decades with Dead Man’s Hat.