Season 56 Play 3 – East Lynne by Brian J Burton
Directed by
Cast
Cornelia Carlyle – Susan Wood
Isabel Carlyle – Julia Wilson
Lord Mount Severn – Peter Hall
Richard Hare – John Foster
Barbara Hare – Jacqueline Scott
Joyce Hallijohn – Yvonne Templeton
Wilson – Sandra Smallwood
Francis Levison – Allan Hollings
Little Willie – Bradley Judge
Angel 1 – Jessica Lewis
Angel 2 – Faye McGrath
Angel 3 – Becky Pritchard
Angel 4 – Sammi Pritchard
Synopsis
Lady Isabel is cunningly seduced by the villain into believing that the clandestine meetings of her husband and another woman are for romance rather than for business. In despair she abandons home and offspring, only to come back in later years disguised as Governess to her own children. Heartbreak, penitence, forgiveness, the stuff of pure melodrama – and with music!
Directors Notes
EAST LYNNE – A story of its time retold by Brian Burton.
Source; The best-selling serialised novel of 1861 by Mrs. Henry Wood.
It is a play crowded with:
Yes, it is melodramatic, with a hero, villain and suffering heroine, but it deserves to be played with realism which allows the characters to speak for the people of their time, where hypocrisy, cruelty and uncertainty often blighted family life. We follow our heroine from her youthful marriage through all the eventful excitement of her life, while our hero exercises his mind on a stimulating diet of criminal investigation. Our villain is an absolute charmer on the surface and very, very nasty underneath. Judging by novels and newspapers then and now, our interests have not changed much! Oh, and a Merry Christmas to you all, and no Humbug!
