Double Dorset bill for community playwright

Fanny Charles looks ahead to community plays in Dorchester and Poole

This will be a busy year for community playwright Stephanie Dale—her Dorchester project, Spinning the Moon, finally takes to the boards in April, and Salt, which she has written for Poole’s first ever community play, will be staged in the town in July.

Spinning the Moon, Dorchester’s record-breaking seventh community play will open on 4th April for a two-week run at Thomas Hardye School theatre—three years after the first Covid lockdown caused the cancellation of the original opening night in 2020.

It comes to the stage almost a decade, following the hugely successful sixth community play, Drummer Hodge, in 2014. No other town in the world has staged so many community productions.

Like all Dorchester’s previous community plays, Spinning the Moon takes a Dorset look at a major historic event—in this case, the devastating civil war known as The Wars of the Roses. It is set in and around Wolfeton House, a historic property near Dorchester.

Lord Trenchard returns home to find that his lands have been mismanaged by his steward and the family faces ruin. As the play unfolds fortunes rise and fall with the civil war bringing chaos to the local community. The characters include the family and their retainers and servants, some less than brotherly monks from Abbotsbury and a group of cunning women.

The 90-strong cast includes new recruits of all ages and some actors who are veterans of Dorchester productions since 1985’s first community play, Entertaining Strangers.

It’s been an exciting but often frustrating roller-coaster for the company and the writer. Rowan Seymour, who leads the volunteer board of Dorchester Community Play Association, says: ‘Three years ago we were in despair when Covid hit and we had to down tools, but now I can’t describe how brilliant the atmosphere is.’

Stephanie Dale, who also wrote Dorchester’s fifth community play A Time to Keep, says: ‘When we were shut down by the first lockdown we were all devastated and didn’t dare hope we would ever get the play to the stage but now, seeing it come together week by week as rehearsals progress is the best feeling in the world.’

Director Peter Leslie Wild describes the company as ‘an incredible bunch of people—there is no let-up but everyone puts their heart and soul into every minute and works so hard.’

Music is a key part of Spinning The Moon, and the programme, from jolly harvest home songs to solemn Palm Sunday hymns, is in very safe hands, led by Dorset’s

for Salt

outstanding singer, historian, actor and musician Tim Laycock, assisted by Alastair Simpson.

Dorset has links with the Canadian province of Newfoundland that go back more than three centuries. Salt, the new community play, is being produced by Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre and created by Dorset-based Angel Exit Theatre.

Stephanie Dale’s play is set between 1681 and the present day. It shines a light on the Newfoundland trade that was at its height from the mid-17th century until the mid19th century and saw Poole sailors bring salt cod from Newfoundland to the ports of Spain, Portugal and Italy, and return with salt, olive oil and wine.

By the end of the 17th century many Dorset families had settled in Newfoundland, economic migrants from rural and coastal poverty in search of new lives in a new land, and the play focuses on the first brave women who made the treacherous voyage to settle in a hostile land.

The themes of what it means to belong and what it means to leave your homeland are woven into a story with contemporary characters which have been developed through workshops with the playwright.

As at Dorchester, music will also be an important part of Poole’s community production, with Tim Laycock recruiting a choir to learn some old Newfoundland songs.

For Spinning the Moon tickets, or more information, contact Dorchester Arts on 01305 266926 or visit dorchesterarts.org.uk—this is a promenade performance; contact Dorchester Arts if you have specific accessibility requirements.

For more information on Salt, email communityplay@ lighthousepoole. co.uk or call the project coordinator, Holly, on 01202 781338.