Happy Highways: the second Rusthall community play

May 2021 saw the beginning of casting and rehearsal for Happy Highways, a play which will take place in August in Rusthall’s Happy Valley. I was delighted to be able to interview writer and director Jon Oram via zoom to find out more about the project.

Hi Jon. Many residents of Rusthall will remember the first community play you did in Rusthall, Legends of the Rocks, in the summer of 2019. For the uninitiated could you tell us a little bit about what a community play is like?

The important thing is that an audience can come and see something which is directly made by the people who are in it. We are inclusive, and anyone who wants to take part in it, in anyway at all, is very welcome. We need people to help in practical ways like stewarding, it’s not just about performance. There will be scope for actors to develop their own scenes. Casting will be from late May or early June and will really be more of a conversation than an audition. Everyone gets a part, and we develop something with each participant that they feel comfortable with. It is a healthy way to do theatre in the sense that everyone is on an equal footing, so it can reflect the community it is in. I love it when whole families get involved – it enriches their relationships if they do it together and create something as equals.

You are the playwright as well as the director – what is the writing process like?

It is a devised play which means we find the play through workshops on zoom open to anyone. At each session I set a prompt from which we get flooded with imaginative ideas, and then my responsibility is to shape those ideas into a play. Although I write it, the play ultimately will be the voice of the people in it, and a consensus about what people feel about their history, landscape, and community. Devising a play is quite a new concept and we are grateful for funding for the play from the Arts Council so that I can write a book about the process.

Covid has had a massive effect on all our plans – how will this play be different to Legends?

It is likely to take the form of a walk around Happy Valley, which you can wander on your own or by joining small groups rather than being in a larger audience. You will be guided on a journey through the rocks, during which a story will unfold as you meet various characters. It is going to be hard to do workshops for costumes or props, so we are going to rely on the space itself and make environmental art in outdoor workshops, using the natural materials around us like wood and fallen leaves. We would love people to come and do that in the run up to the play.

Legend of the Rocks had the theme of the need to fight climate change. Have there been specific inspirations or themes for the Happy Highways play?

The title Happy Highways has been taken from the Housman poem in A Shropshire Lad which mentions ‘blue remembered hills’ and has the line ‘The happy highways where I went/and cannot come again.’ It evokes a rather wistful sense of the way we remember our past, and the stories we tell about life’s journey, which is the overall theme. Just as the audience will be on a journey through the rocks when they see the play, it will be about other journeys people are on. It draws on the history of happy valley; when I think of the cold baths which were there in the eighteenth century, I think of people sitting around and telling stories.  HG Wells was fascinated by the rocks and came to the area and wrote about it; he walked from Toad Rock, through Happy Valley to Groombridge. In World War One Belgian refugees were welcomed in Tunbridge Wells and stories in their diaries mention visiting happy valley; and in World War Two the beacon was a home for Jewish Kindertransport children who attended St Paul’s school and played in happy valley, so they are journeys of escape and shelter.

Happy Valley is a stunning location – how are you going to use it?

In a way the audience will be travellers walking and meeting fellow travellers – just as you do when you walk your dog there and you meet people who tell you their stories. The audience will be able to talk to the characters if they want to, and there will probably be improvisation. There is a little amphitheatre space in Happy Valley where the audience can gather and hear the conclusions to the story that has unfolded. We are thinking about people with mobility issues and there will be a flat route for people who can’t do steps. Hopefully in August there won’t be too much mud!

What should people do if they want to get involved?

We would love people to be involved and casting will start soon. You can email rusthallcommunityarts@gmail.com  or look at our website at www.communityplays.com or www.rusthallcommunityarts.org.uk as well as looking out for posters around the village.

Blue Remembered Hills

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

A.E. Housman