Plays : Fourth Series

Set in a sun‑drenched West Country village on Ascension Day, the play opens in the modest farmhouse of the Burlacombe family, where the earnest clergyman Michael Strangway fills the room with a quiet melody. As the young women of the community—quiet Ivy, free‑spirited Gladys, steady Connie, and thoughtful Mercy—stream in, a gentle, unspooled conversation about the nature of love and faith begins. Strangway’s earnest lecture, laced with humor and a hint of hidden longing, invites the girls to question whether love is a duty, a feeling, or something deeper that simply ought to be given.

The dialogue is both a training ground for the characters’ budding sensibilities and a window into the tensions between tradition and youthful curiosity. Listeners are drawn into the simple, everyday rhythms of village life while feeling the undercurrents of desire, belief, and the search for a more authentic connection. The scene sets a tone of quiet reflection that hints at larger emotional currents waiting to surface.