Identity Theatre to Bring BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS to Brighton Open Air Theatre

This summer, Identity Theatre in association with the Brighton Open Air Theatre invite you to Dennis Potter's remarkable telling of lost childhood innocence, set in the impoverished Forest of Dean during WW2.

Children play on an endless summer afternoon in the Forest of Dean - 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 has become a classic.

Dennis Potter's affectionate study captures all 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...

Semi-autobiographical in nature, Blue Remembered Hills is set in a landscape similar to the one in which Potter himself grew up. It is probably Potter's 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, because it has to loosen up and let go, 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. Potter demonstrates that human behaviour is the same no matter what age the participants are. The bullying, taking sides, picking on outsiders and make-believe of childhood games are merely played out on a bigger scale. The genius of the script is that they soon make you forget they're adults and draw us into their childhood of war games, squirrel-hunting and nose-picking. The challenge for actors and directors alike is to remember the apparently trivial details of growing up which at the time seemed so important - the shame of coming to school with a new haircut or the joy of capturing a tadpole in a jar - and transferring those emotions onto stage.

This production of BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS was first performed 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.

Performances run July 19 - 22nd 2017, 6.30 for 7.30pm (bring a picnic!). Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT) is located in Dyke Road Park on Dyke Road, Brighton & Hove. 10 minutes walk from Seven Dials roundabout and opposite the Booth Museum. The postcode is BN3 6EH. Tickets £10.00 (£8 concessions) from www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk/event/blue-remembered-hills or cash only on door. Visit www.identitytheatrecompany.co.uk for more information.

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