Western Daily Press (Saturday)
A swashbuckling rural romance
A famous tale of rural passions and feuds is 150-years-old this year. Martin Hesp reports
FOR people who don’t like the old-fashioned way it was written, it is the Most Famous Book No One’s Ever Read. On the other hand romantics and some country lovers regard it as one of the best rural swashbuckling romances ever penned. Whichever way you view Lorna Doone, the novel is undoubtedly one of the most evocative things ever written about Exmoor – and this year happens to be its 150th anniversary.
Various events are planned around the fact that RD Blackmore had the novel published back in 1869 and one is a rerun of one of the most dramatically located stage productions ever performed in the Westcountry.
The play Lorna Doone is set to return to Exmoor’s dramatic Valley of the Rocks as part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary. From August 20 to the 31 the Pleasure Dome Theatre Company will be performing the production under the looming craggy mass of Castle Rock and high above the waves of the Bristol Channel.
A combined cast of professionals and local performers – led by Josephine Rattigan as Lorna and Edward Kaye as her lover John Ridd – will bring the spell-binding story to life at the centre of the famous beauty spot.
“Directed by Scott Le Crass and with costumes designed by Oscarwinning Kathleen Nellis, atmospheric music and the dramatic backdrop of the sun setting into the sea as it gives way to night, what better place to enjoy this Exmoor tale?” said a spokesman for the company.
The Pleasure Dome experience is the “dream come true” of Helena Payne who grew up at Culbone just along the precipitous coast.
“As a child she played in the Valley of the Rocks, fantasising about staging shows there,” said the spokesman. “As an adult working in theatre and opera, she has made it happen. Now she opens a door to a wider theatrical world for local actors like Roxanne Tandridge and 17 year old Tabitha Payne of Watchet.
“Staging theatre in the wild has its challenges like the weather… Audiences are asked to bring their own seating and picnic before the show and wrap up warm, as even on balmy summer nights the weather can be changeable.”
As well as the play, the regional publisher Halsgrove has published book called the Lorna Doone Trail to help celebrate the anniversary. It is a full-colour tome which follows in R D Blackmore’s footsteps as he crosses and recrosses what is now a popular national park in the telling of his famous tale.
Parts of the original novel have been lifted and given a commentary – first written by the well known Westcountry historian S H Burton, and now revised and expanded by local writers John Burgess and Caroline Tonson-Rye.
“To celebrate this very significant anniversary we could think of no more fitting contribution than to republish and update S H Burton’s classic guide to the locations where R D Blackmore set the story,” says Steven Pugsley, of Halsgrove.
As the publisher states, Blackmore’s deep affection for – and understanding of – Exmoor’s landscape, people and legends really does shine through in his immortal novel.
“Through words and pictures, the new book, traces the Exmoor adventures of Jan Ridd and Lorna Doone and the host of other characters – such as Jeremy Stickles and Tom Faggus – who feature in the grand sweep of the story,” says the Halsgrove book description.
Using Blackmore’s own words as the starting point, the Lorna Doone Trail helps to marry plot with place, using illustrations and commentary to put the narrative in its real-life context, enabling anyone who loves the novel and its characters to follow in Blackmore’s footsteps.