The Years Between

Synopsis

1945. Following the tragic loss of her husband in action, MP’s wife Diana Wentworth and her young son determinedly rebuild their life in rural home-counties England. As a single woman, Diana finds unexpected independence; she assumes her husband’s seat in parliament and begins a relationship with a local farmer. As the war draws to an end and peace returns to the country, a shock revelation threatens Diana’s new existence to the core. Autobiographically-inspired, The Years Between is one of only two original plays written by Daphne du Maurier, better known as a novelist and particularly as the author of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn.

Our Review:

14 September 2007

The Orange Tree has unearthed yet another fascinating curio in Daphne Du Maurier’s war-time play of a readjusted marriage. The Years Between are those dividing 1942 and 1945, during which period Colonel Michael Wentworth, a writer and Conservative MP for a Hertfordshire constituency, goes missing, presumed dead, in action.

His wife, Diana (Karen Ascoe), assumes her husband’s political career, enters Parliament, and develops a deep friendship with, and indeed reliance on, a neighbouring farmer, Richard Llewellyn (Michael Lumsden), not least because he has become such an effective surrogate father to her young son Robin (Oscar Addis at the performance I saw; the role is shared with Dominic Chelsom and Tristan Pegg).

When Michael (Mark Tandy) returns – he has been engaged in under-cover intelligence work in Occupied Europe, not held in a Prisoner of War camp as in the 1945 movie starring Michael Redgrave and Valerie Hobson – Dia...

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