...scripts and new plays from Janet Smith

Approaching the eve of the changes from the 'Old Style' Julian, to the 'New Style' Gregorian method of timekeeping in 1752, a storyteller on his way to Goose Fair, finds himself in a rural hamlet. Events surrounding his arrival conspire to transport the villagers into a frenzy of fear and dread about the coming night, when 11 days and nights are to be plundered from the calendar, and their lives. Before them looms a yawning cavern of limbo and darkness, and one through which they all have to pass before they wake. Add to the dimension of time, a love story, singing, dancing, and a dragon.

A group of oddly matched people accidentally meet at The Bridge one fine spring morning, each with a diverse motive in mind; love, murder, suicide – and bird-watching! But even those who have come for darker reasons fall under the spell of the dawn chorus.

The family of Lord John Barleycorn Withers are summoned urgently to Withering Hall. Imagining the elderly Lord to be dying, they rush home to find, instead of the deathbed scene they had anticipated, the old squire preparing to marry a Land Army girl! This news is not greeted with universal delight. That evening his Lordship gives a grand banquet in honour of his bride to be – and despite tears and refusal the family all attend - but for one, it will be their last supper.