We sat down with Jenny Hall, director of Akenfield. Fifty years after Sir Peter Hall turned Ronald Blythe’s best-known work Akenfield into a film, his daughter Jenny Hall will be directing the landmark work on rural Suffolk as a stage production. Get tickets here.
Akenfield has such a deep family and personal connection for you, with your father directing the 1974 film. How does it feel to now bring this story to the stage yourself?
It’s a bit overwhelming. It gets me right on the funny bone. But I feel surprisingly sure footed – as if every life experience and every work experience has led me to this point.
The adaptation by Glenn Wilhide draws on Ronald Blythe’s intimate accounts of rural Suffolk. What elements of the book were most important for you to preserve in this staging?
I commissioned Glenn to adapt Ronnie’s book, because he is so skilled with structure, and because I knew he’d do thorough research and faithfully convey Ronnie’s meaning in dramatic form. The book is 49 testimonies plus Ronnie’s own voice, making 50 – too much to fit into one play. But Glenn has written something bold and fresh that conveys the heart of it. Much of the book is profoundly shocking, and I felt it important to amplify that truth and not flinch away from it or try to put a rosy glow on what was a ferociously hard life.
The production features an entirely local cast, with both professional actors and people rooted in farming communities. What has working with this blend of performers brought to the piece?
The cast have deep roots in this place, and the voices of their forebears are ringing in their ears. The blend of performers raises everyone’s game. I don’t think you’ll be able to tell who is a professional actor and who isn’t. Entrusting non-actors with a famous piece of work, and with creating new roles in a fine new play, encourages them to dig deep. It creates an exciting and dynamic working environment and preserves authenticity.
You’ve described the play as “surprisingly relevant now.” In what ways do you see the themes of Akenfield resonating with audiences today?
Ronnie gave a voice, and a hauntingly beautiful one, to people on the bottom rung of the ladder. Forgotten people. People who were persistently exploited by farmers and a ruling class who generally believed the poor deserved to remain that way. I wish that wasn’t relevant now but I see economic exploitation on the rise, everywhere.
With set design by sculptor Laurence Edwards and music by Finn and Rowan Collinson, this production has a strong artistic and local flavour. How have these collaborations shaped the atmosphere and storytelling of the show?
All the heads of department involved in Akenfield are local people and it’s an amazing line-up! I surrounded myself with people who matched my passion for this project – for both personal and aesthetic reasons. I wanted everyone to feel free to explore their connection to Akenfield, trusting that our shared passion would result in a coherent whole. It has been a tremendously joyful collaboration, with urgent care taken over every tiny detail of our production. It has been an absolute privilege for me to produce and direct this show.