Fen

Synopsis

Val wants more. Becky wants to be a hairdresser. Angela wants to escape. Shirley can't be doing with all the fuss everyone is making. In a world where roles are fixed and choices are few, Fen follows the interweaving lives of different generations of women, and questions our sense of entitlement as to what life should give us. Exploring the relationship between aspiration and expectation, Fen looks at our connection with the work, the people, and the landscapes that hold us together. A community of working women. Grafting, striving, finding their way.

Our Review:

14 March 2011

If your school’s career advisor ever suggested that your future lay working in the Fens, then you’d soon wish you’d done a bit less talking and a bit more listening. Such is the harshness of the place as depicted in this beautifully crafted co production by Iron Shoes in association with NT Studio and the Finborough.

Played out on James Button’s workmanlike set, where every draw, cupboard and crate plays it’s part, Fen is a place of toil and weather. Where faceless conglomerates rule and those left behind are soon mopped up by religion or alcohol or both, the play exposes the lives of up to 21 villagers and there relationship with the landscape and each other. One of the triumphs (and there are many) of this production is that these characters are performed with a cast of just six, showing the multi-role to be a tool for purpose as well convenience.

At its simplest, the play centres on Val (Katherine Burford) and Fr...

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