The discursive speechifying that’s often stalked Mike Bartlett’s intricate dramas runs rampant in this tale of modern farming folk. As always with Bartlett the play is packed with provoking ideas – in this case about the environment, industrial vs organic cultivation, and the impossibility of living without compromise. But it feels like a poor retread of his excellent 2017 play Albion, which explored the state of England through the metaphor of a country garden. And this time round I didn’t believe in the characters or their relationships at all.
Hattie Morahan is Ruth, a wealthy fortysomething divorcee who has somehow hooked up with taciturn and peculiar countryman Lip (Sam Troughton). Together, they’ve acquired his estranged father’s farm on the old man’s deathbed with a view to turning it into an “ethical, producing, profitable business”. Yeah, good luck with that.
