Reviews

Peapickers is all about identity and roots and the importance of having both. It's a thought-provoking piece of drama which spans 50-odd years, demonstrating that actions have consequences, and that there is no escaping your genes.

There are some fine performances, as always with Eastern Angles, and it was almost excellent, but for some suspensions of belief in casting we are asked to make as an audience.

It's a tale of three women peapickers in the Cambridgeshire countryside during the war years, one of whom has an affair with a black serviceman stationed nearby.

The result is Darryl, who is sent to live with his father in America when he's five.

Re-visiting childhood

When he returns as an academic specialising in genetics to speak at a mental disorder conference in Cambridge, it's only natural he should want to explore the locality and discover more about his early childhood there with his mother.

In doing so, Darryl uncovers a whole heap more than he had anticipated, re-igniting the debate of nature v nurture, and much more.

Nicola Werenowska's story comes at you full-on for the first half hour, leaving you reeling and with little time to digest the facts. It's a lot to take in. Having said that, it does hold you, because it's a powerful theme.

Ella, Daryl and Marg

Anthony Taylor's American accent for Darryl wanders from time to time, but he turns in a sensitive and confident performance. Ella and Marg, two of Susan's pea-picking friends, are supposed to age 50 years, though neither of them does, for me.

Star performance

The performance of the night belongs to Susan, Darryl's mother, played by Rosalind Porter, who has to move from sanity to insanity in two hours, and this she does admirably.

Eastern Angles always hit the spot with their specially commissioned plays about local issues, and they often work well because they're people-based.

I commend this play to anyone who's interested in how they came to be who they are.

As Darryl says - you can't escape your genes. If you ignore them, they wait in the wings and catch up with you.

Spring Tour 2007

Peapickers will be performed throughout Suffolk during April and May:

April

13, 14 (m), 16, 17, 18 (m), 19, 20 and 21 (m) IPSWICH, Sir John Mills Theatre
25 COCKFIELD, Village Hall
27 KIRTON, Church Hall
28 HACHESTON, Village Hall

May

3 SOUTHWOLD, St Edmunds Hall
5 MONKS ELEIGH, Village Hall
9 HAVERHILL, Arts Centre
11 WETHERINGSETT, Village Hall
12 ORFORD, Town Hall
16 SYLEHAM & WINGFIELD, Village Hall
18 and 19 (m) WOODBRIDGE, Community Hall
22 EAST BERGHOLT, Old Hall
26 HALESWORTH, The Cut

Key: (m) Matinee performance in addition to evening show.

Visit Eastern Angles' website for upto date listings and ticket details.