10:50am Monday 1st March 2010
TWO decades after it was written, a darkly entertaining play of wartime childcare is being staged across the county.
Little Arthur’s History Of England was written by Dorset-based playwright Peter Cooper and is being performed by the county’s Spyway Theatre.
Trisha Lewis stars as Nanny Cummins, who runs the nursery of a big house during the days and nights of September 1939.
We learn of Nanny’s life, disappointments and attitudes to the looming conflict, as she reads from the big history book that she keeps on the nursery shelf and fortifies herself with a swig from her special medicine bottle.
In the end Nanny knows she cannot keep the truth from her charge, little Arthur, and instead tries to make him understand what the impending conflict might mean.
Peter Cooper explained: “I first wrote it about 20 years ago and then put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Then, several years later, someone needed a radio play in a hurry and I remembered this play and dusted it off.
“I based Nanny Cummins on how my mother brought us kids up.”
Peter added that there are parts of the play with satirical overtones about today’s world.
“There is a part where the nanny says that if we win the war, little Arthur won’t have to grow up in a world where the Prime Minister can take his country into a war without asking his people first. I didn’t think about that at the time, but now look what has happened.”
Trisha Lewis is a Dorset-based actress with a great range of professional work to her credit. You can see Little Arthur’s History Of England at Briantspuddle village hall on Saturday, March 6, at 7.30pm. Call 01929 471497 for bookings and further details.
Later in the month, the play is also being staged at village halls in Child Okeford (Friday, March 12, call 01258 861391), Winterborne Stickland Hall the following night (call 01258 880920) and Tarrant Gunville on Friday, March 26, (call 01258 830361).
All performances start at 7.30pm.
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