Days Of Plenty, The Stage

It is so obvious - of course the East Anglian Touring Company Eastern Angles should produce realistic stories of Suffolk farming life.   Days of Plenty, set in 1967/68, follows its brilliant success with The Reapers Year, featuring the same family 30 years earlier.

There will, in time, be a third in the trilogy, set in the late nineties - obvious to do, but not necessarily so crackingly absorbing as this piece.

Ivan Cutting's writing is sharp, natural and anything but flat.   He loves his subject, and the audience is spellbound by the marvellous family he has created.

David Redgrave and Susan Beresford are grandparents Peter and Lizzie, now living in a tied cottage: "It isn't the cottage that's tied, it's the man."

She fought the Nazis with work in a wartime factory, and he fought Rommel in the desert - but with a taste of town life still appealing, he brought her back to serve the land, and they have stolidly fulfilled their accepted mission, raising crops and two daughters.

Joyce and Peg are played by Katharine Burford and Ella Howard, and, like their parents, they are completely at home in this realistic cottage kitchen.   Joyce is married to a volatile farming shop steward, played by Alex Harland.   Peg is already out of here, making a career as a revolutionary undergraduate.

Whichever of the five is not needed on stage in any particular scene gives four year old grandson Ray a voice and presence - a clever device.   The dangers of farm life, which include the dodgy wiring of the cottage, provide a tension throughout the play, which is resolved in tragedy.

It is enhanced by the background music provided by Pat Whymark, including The Painful Plough, from the previous play.   The working kitchen set is designed by Gemma Fripp.

The audience in Ipswich was totally convinced and much entertained, and the tour should expect a warm welcome.

CAROL CARVER, The Stage