Akenfield stage show at Wells

RONALD Blythe's book, Akenfield, was a wonderful, eloquent work that wormed its way deep into the Suffolk psyche. The book was a best-seller, and a subsequent film earned critical acclaim.

RONALD Blythe's book, Akenfield, was a wonderful, eloquent work that wormed its way deep into the Suffolk psyche. The book was a best-seller, and a subsequent film earned critical acclaim.

That was 40 years ago. Some time later, Canadian writer Craig Taylor, who is now based in this country, decided to revisit that place somewhere off the A12 between Lowestoft and Ipswich. The dramatised adaptation of what he discovered there makes terrific theatre, and you can see the new Eastern Angles production, Return to Akenfield, when it visits Wells and Hindolveston this spring as part of an extensive East Anglian tour.

How have four decades of change in the countryside altered Akenfield? What became of those old boys who toiled on the land in days gone by, and how have their descendants reacted to the dolling-up of humble cottages, the incomers and the well-to-do London exiles in their 4x4s? Moreover, what impressions have the village and its people made on economic migrants from Poland and Russia, and vice-versa?

Find out at the Granary Theatre at Wells on Friday, May 8, and Hindolveston Village Hall the following evening.

Tickets for Return to Akenfield are now available from the Eastern Angles box office on 01473 211498 (Monday to Friday, 10am-2pm), or online on www.easternangles.co.uk