The New Theatre, Cardiff – Monday 11th – Saturday 16th October

I was hoping my first theatre review would be full of positives and 10 stars but that’s so not what you’re getting. Lark Rise had a slow plot, second rate acting, and frankly didn’t reach its target audience, or any audience for that matter. Starring Sara Crowe (Four Weddings and a Funeral) Jonathan Ansell (lead singer of G4) and Produced by Bill Kenwright (Evita, Blood Brothers). This play definitely tanked, bad.

Seen through the eyes of young Laura Timms, the play observes the small community that inhabit the small, fictional village of Lark Rise in the late 19th Century. It is the first day of harvest, and the villagers celebrate through song, dance and storytelling. No seriously that’s it…for the whole play…

Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m from the media generation; I cannot function without Facebook or my phone, but Lark Rise to Candleford just failed to grab me on every level. It went about as far as a car with no petrol and had the substance of a cuppa-soup. Not only were me and my friends the youngest in there by at least 50 years, but even the older generation were loosing the will. One woman in the row in front of us actually got up in the middle of the second half, announced that she didn’t want to be ‘any more depressed’ than she already was, and left. That was the highlight of the show.

Despite the promising line-up of actors and stars, the acting was a bit hit-and-miss and G4 boy is better off sticking to the singing. In fact the short folk songs that infested the play were perhaps the best bits. Perhaps.
 
Maybe most of my disappointment came from watching the TV adaption on BBC 1 in the winter months with a nice hot chocolate (I have no life on a Sunday night okay). Even if the BBC did dramatically change the storyline from the original novels by Flora Thompson at least they made it dramatic! I’ve never actually read the novels, and now I’ve seen the play, I never will. My aunt insists they’re a good read, I insist differently.

In conclusion, I really don’t recommend anyone under the age of 65 to come to this play; even then they’d leave during the interval. If they’re polite that is.

3/10 – Bad times