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Sheep Town at The Mart Theatre Skipton in 2007

Sheep Town Theatre Company is delighted to announce that as of January 2007 we will be the new resident theatre company at Skipton’s Mart Theatre. This will involve five shows during 2007 and regular workshops for both adults and children.

Overdale

8-9 June 2007
Skipton Auction Mart
by Jenny Speak, Craven Herald

THE YOUTHFUL thespians of Sheep Town Theatre Company took a step in a much more sober and hard-hitting direction with their latest play, Overdale, at the weekend. The powerful production was set shortly after World War Two and followed the fortunes of a Yorkshire farming family after the arrival of a German prisoner-labourer.

Sheep Town's past productions, the Diversification of Veg Boy and Phantom of the Skies, have not been without their fair share of emotional intensity but both had a definite joviality and endearing tongue-in-cheek feel about them. However, with a harrowing rape scene, musings on nationalism and empire and some subtle multi-dimensional characters, Overdale showcased the 'grass roots' group's ability to put out serious heavyweight drama.

Kenan Ally, who penned the play as part of Sheep Town's rotating rota of writers, pulled off a convincing Germanic vernacular in the role of Matthias. The farmhand is introduced as something of a loveable eccentric and although Jud (Thomas Aldersley) greets him with xenophobia and suspicion, his childhood sweetheart and potential fiancee Emily (Hannah Jane) treats him with affection and respect.

Emily's father Grimshaw (played by bearded Alan Brent, who fitted into the role of a cuddly Dales farmer as though he'd stumbled on stage while looking for the sheep pens) is also very fond of the hardworking Matthias and the scene is set for a morality tale of the 'why can't we all just get along?' variety.

However, with a few sophisticated turns of plot, Matthias is revealed to be both a proud SS volunteer and a much more complex and flawed character than previously portrayed, showing cruelty and questionable morals as events progress. And progress they do - an eerie nighttime scene where Emily recites the carol Silent Night in German after singing it in English lets the audience know that, yes, the two are indeed having an affair and, yes, things are going to get very messy.

There follows a very convincing and wellacted scene where Jud tries to rape Emily, which was genuinely uncomfortable to watch, and some thought-provoking musings on blind patriotism and empire. Juxtaposed references to Orwell and Kipling add weight to the wellresearched script, which was written with input from a former German POW on his time at a farm in these parts.

Slick use of period music added to the play's professional feel and a sizeable audience showed that Skiptonians are beginning to cotton on to the talents of Sheep Town.

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