The Hoghton Players
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Hindle Wakes - November / December 2000

Go down

Hindle Wakes - November / December 2000 Empty Hindle Wakes - November / December 2000

Post  Mike B Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:42 am

Hindle Wakes, By Stanley Houghton
Hoghton Village Hall, 23rd-25th November 2000
Hoghton Tower, 8/9th December 2000


Stanley Houghton's enduring 1912 stage play Hindle Wakes explores the Victorian revolutionary idea that woman may, even as man, follow the urge of her nature.
Hindle is a small weaving town, symbolically representing the wakefulness of every small community to the shortcomings of its neighbors. Christopher Hawthorne and Nathaniel Jeffcote had begun life together as lads in the cotton mill. But while Christopher was always a timid and shrinking boy, Nathaniel was aggressive and bilious. When the play opens, Christopher, though an old man, is still a poor weaver; Nathaniel, on the contrary, has reached the top of financial and social success. He is the owner of the biggest mill; is wealthy, influential, and withal a man of power. For Nathaniel Jeffcote always loved power and social approval
However, Nathaniel is a "square man," and when facing an emergency, not chary with justice and always quick to decide in its favor.
The Jeffcotes center all their hopes on Alan, their only child, who is to inherit their fortune and business. Alan is engaged to Beatrice, the lovely, sweet daughter of Sir Timothy Farrar, and all is joyous at the Jeffcotes'.
Down in the valley of Hindle live the Hawthornes, humble and content, as behooves God-fearing workers. They too have ambitions in behalf of their daughter Fanny, strong, willful and self-reliant,--qualities moulded in the hard grind of Jeffcote's mill, where she had begun work as a tot.
During the "Wakes Week" Fanny with her chum Mary goes to Blackpool for an outing. There they meet two young men, Alan Jeffcote and his friend. Fanny departs with Alan, and they spend a glorious time together in Llandudno. On the way home Mary is drowned. As a result of the accident the Hawthornes learn that their daughter had not spent her vacation with Mary. When Fanny returns, they question her, and though she at first refuses to give an account of herself, they soon discover that the girl had passed the time with a man,--young Alan Jeffcote. Her parents are naturally horrified, and decide to force the Jeffcotes to have Alan marry Fanny.
In the old mother of Fanny the author has succeeded in giving a most splendid characterization of the born drudge, hardened by her long struggle with poverty, and grown shrewd in the ways of the world. She knows her daughter so little, however, that she believes Fanny had schemed the affair with Alan in the hope that she might force him to marry her. In her imagination the old woman already sees Fanny as the mistress of the Jeffcote estate. She persuades her husband to go immediately to the Jeffcotes, and though it is very late at night, the old man is forced to start out on his disagreeable errand.
Jeffcote, a man of integrity, is much shocked at the news brought to him by old Hawthorne. Nevertheless he will not countenance the wrong.
Young Alan had never known responsibility. Why should he, with so much wealth awaiting him? When confronted by his father and told that he must marry Fanny, he fights hard against it. It may be said, in justice to Alan, that he really loves his betrothed, Beatrice, (though such a circumstance has never deterred the Alans of this world from having a lark with another girl).
The young man resents his father's command to marry the mill girl. But when even Beatrice insists that he belongs to Fanny, Alan unwillingly consents. Beatrice, a devout Christian, believes in renunciation.
The Jeffcotes and the Hawthornes gather to arrange the marriage of their children. It does not occur to them to consult Fanny in the matter. Much to their consternation, Fanny refuses to abide by the decision of the family council.
The dismayed parents, and even Alan, plead with her and threaten. But Fanny is obdurate. At last Alan asks to be left alone with her, confident that he can persuade the girl.
Fanny refuses to be made a "good woman," and she dares to demand the right to live in her own way?
It has always been considered the most wonderful event in the life of a girl if a young man of wealth, of position, of station came into her life and said, "I will take you as my wife until death do us part."


Gallery

Hindle Wakes - November / December 2000 Hindle10
https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g475/TheHoghtonPlayers/Hindle%20Wakes/?albumview=slideshow

Cast

Director/Producer - Russell Atkinson Assistant Producer - Ian Murray

Mrs Hawthorn - Ann-Marie Cruickshank Christopher Hawthorn - Harold Eastham Fanny Hawthorn - Rachel Eastham Mrs Jeffcote - Margaret Jones

Nathaniel Jeffcote - Paul Heyworth Alan Jeffcote - Gary Williams Sir Timothy Farrar - Russell Atkinson Beatrice Farrar - Jo Gardner

Ada (a maid) - Emma Friend Cochrane (a butler) - Robert Cochrane


Crew

Prompt - Jim Lawrenson Stage Manager/Props - Veronica Roper, Dorothy Eastham

Make up & Hair - Millie Santus & Carole Brindle Wardrobe - Sylvia Atkinson, Barbara Freeman

Set design & construction -Norman & Millie Goodenough and numerous good friends Lighting - Paul Santus Sound - Andrew Freeman
Mike B
Mike B
Director / Producer
Director / Producer

Posts : 62
Join date : 2008-09-24
Age : 42
Location : Caerphilly

http://www.coppicepictures.co.uk

Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum