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Open Air Theatre - Elsie
Piddock Skips in her Sleep
If you were asked to name the writer of the song, Morning
has Broken, you’d probably say Cat Stevens. But although
he popularised the song with his 1970s hit, the original lyricist
was a small, shy, quiet spinster called Eleanor Farjeon, better
known as the prolific author of numerous adult novels, poetry
and children’s stories. Despite her timidity, Farjeon
moved in high literary circles. She was great friends with
DH Lawrence and passionately attached to the poet, Edward
Thomas. Noel Coward reportedly thought her ‘wonderfully
witty and gay’.
Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep was penned by Farjeon whilst
she was living in a cottage in Sussex, and is the source for
a new open-air play by Paddock Productions. Set in and around
the real-life Sussex landscape, Elsie Piddock tells the story
of a girl who has such a talent for skipping that the fairies
summon her to nearby Mount Caburn and award her a magical
rope. Generations later, a developer buys the land and threatens
to build factories on the mountain. All the villagers come
out to skip there one last time, but Elsie Piddock appears,
aged 109, with her magic rope and saves the land forever by
skipping the developer into a hole in the ground. We all know
about developers in Lewes today: it is easy to see the resonances
of the story in modern life. This weekend the company performs
on the site of Mount Caburn before bringing it downhill to
the Gun Garden. ER |
