Blue Remembered Hills, July 19-22 2017

Brighton Open Air Theatre

Dennis Potter’s remarkable telling of lost childhood innocence set in wartime Forest of Dean - Children play on an endless summer afternoon - it is 1943; their fathers are fighting overseas, their mothers are doing their best... They free-fall through their day, their wild and unrestrained relationships both mimicking the adult world and highlighting the casual cruelty of children. At times hilarious, at times chilling, Potter’s play is a classic, capturing the joy, horror, anxiety and delight of children at play - it holds a mirror up to our own childhood memories of carefree fun, and shows how the repercussions of action without thought can result in tragedy...

Blue Remembered Hills is set in Potter's own childhood landscape. It is probably his most accessible play - which is not to say it is simplistic, it remains a multi-layered and nuanced piece. Potter did insist on one thing - that all the parts be played by adults. "The adult body acts as a kind of magnifying instrument which [...] reminds us more of just how mobile and swift movement is in the childhood world, and yet how long time is," he said in 1978. The themes are timeless and universal.

This production was first presented by the Southwick Players in 2016, where it was entered for the Brighton & Hove Arts Council Theatre Awards, winning the Arthur Churchill Award for Excellence, Best Actor for Tobias Clay, Best Technical Achievement, Best Lighting Design and Best Set as well as nominations for several other categories.