FOLIO Theatre is a new company set up last year to connect theatre in London and the West Country and to create plays set in the region.
Its first full length play Unearthed, written by Alys Metcalf and currently on tour, is set in the Quantocks. It tells the story of an estranged brother and sister brought together after their father’s death and forced to look at their relationship with each other and their father by the peculiar terms of a codicil he added to his will shortly before he died..
Within the 70-plus minutes of the play, we watch this cunning wheeze by the dying father to bring the siblings together, aided by a strange young solicitor and a very good friend.
The writer is keen not to fall into stereotypes, and perhaps misses out on a bit of background in the process. I wanted to know more about the father.
But it’s a sparkling debut play, firmly set on the hills and in the farms of Somerset, and beautifully performed by the youthful cast, Jeremy Lloyd and Lizzie Stables as the siblings with Edward Mitchell as Simon and Alana Ramsey as Daisy.
One element of the play deals with the reality of living with a stroke patient, and The Stroke Association has been involved with the development throughout.
You can catch Unearthed at Taunton until Saturday 16th May, at Swindon Arts Centre on 20th May or the Rondo in Bath on 23rd May, before it returns to London for a night at the Arcola Theatre on Sunday 24th.
GP-W
Footnote. I don’t understand why the programme explains the links that Folio wants to forge between the capital and the West Country, but misses the opportunity to mention the links between the writer and members of the cast with the region. That feeling of “ownership” is just as important in theatre as in any other business enterprise, and it will help to establish loyal and expectant audiences.