2025 - A Sequence of Events

 

 

 

A Sequence of Events by Juliet Devon review by Ellyn Wright 

“The Russell Player’s latest outing ‘A Sequence of Events,’ transported Swallowfield back to a time that will have resonated for many, while also reminding us how much society has changed.

The play unfolds in two decades divided by thirty years – the 1960s and 1990s. And with another thirty or so separating those eras from today, it’s a reminder of just how far we’ve come in matters of love, shame, and family.

After a delicious light supper provided by the Riseley Village Tea Room, the sold-out audience was immersed into the production. We sat in a silent stillness as we were drawn irresistibly toward the unfolding drama. No one moved in their seat from the start, even the air seemed to have stilled; the audience were not watching a play they were living it. It captured us all from the start, with the dramatic voiceovers by Bryan Partington and Nigel Adams, the brilliant and heart felt acting, the cleverly selected music, the set designs and period hair, makeup, and costumes set the tone perfectly.

In the first act, we meet 16-year-old Anne (Ashleigh Baker), a bright young woman seeking comfort and connection after the loss of her father, a pilot. Her relationship with Jack (Henry Finney) offers a glimmer of warmth amid grief, but when she discovers she’s pregnant – a realisation prompted by her well-meaning but wonderfully tactless friend Barbara (Zaira Kapacee) – her world quickly closes in.

Branded a “foolish girl” and a burden to her grieving mother Elizabeth (Sheila Partington), Anne finds herself swept along by the rigid moral codes of the era. During a visit from Dr Hall (Alby Wright), we learn that Anne will be sent to live with her Aunt Joyce (Barbara Stanley). It’s decided that “what’s best for baby” is an adoption, which also conveniently spares Elizabeth the shame of her daughter’s condition. 

Six months later and recounting her time in the mother & baby home to Barbara, Anne is ready to put the past behind her. Baby Tracy will have been adopted, her name changed, leaving Anne free to start her course at secretarial college.

However, when Barbara reveals that Jack has been writing – and his letters intercepted by Elizabeth – the emotional cost of that lost year comes sharply into focus. Jack and Anne rekindle their relationship, but it’s based on a misunderstanding of their future.

For Jack, their future stability of a home and marriage is, at least in part, fuelled by a desire to prove themselves fit parents for baby Tracy. But Anne feels betrayed that she alone is not enough for Jack, and the first act ends with the fraught admission that she doesn’t want Tracy back.

Act Two jumps forward, introducing us to an adult Tracy – now Lynn (Caroline Waterer) – as she begins the process of finding her birth parents. Anne, now a married woman with three children who know nothing of her early past, receives a letter from a social worker about the possible reunion. Discussing it with Barbara, Anne somewhat coolly claims that she doesn’t need the guilt trip. But beneath that armour lies the damage inflicted by a lifetime of silence and stigma.

In the final scene, Lynn looks to the future with her friend Claire (Lynn Wright) after learning that her birth mother doesn’t wish to progress the relationship. Despite the rejection, Lynn is at peace with the cards that life has dealt her. Or she is at least until Claire asks about tracing her birth father! 

Under the direction of Deni Smale, the skilled writing of Juliet Devon, and the stage manager, Doog Wright, the Russell Players delivered another production displaying their acting versatility in a play that dared to tell us an honest and different truth. It balanced the emotional weight with empathy and quiet humour. It provided its audience with thought provoking entertainment and is another success for the Russell Players.”