Jenny Hall (Akenfield)

Akenfield is a new play by Glenn Wilhide (The Royle Family) which has been adapted from the world-famous Akenfield; Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe. Performed by local Suffolk people directed by Jenny Hall, (daughter of Peter Hall who made the film in 1975) and designed by the distinguished sculptor Laurence Edwards, with costumes by Constance Mackenzie and music by Finn and Rowan Collinson, Akenfield is something of a memory play about Suffolk, made and performed by Suffolk people.

Q) Hello, before we begin, please could you tell us a little bit more about Akenfield and what the story entails?

Hello! Akenfield is a book of fictionalised oral history by Ronald Blythe, in which 49 villagers tell their stories, and Ronnie adds some introductions in his own voice. The book includes lists of Apple varieties...it’s unexpected, in so many ways.

My father and Ronnie made a film of it together in 1975, where they distilled it down to one day in the life of a family, with flashbacks to the grandfather and father of the central character, all called Tom Rouse. Neither young Tom Rouse nor his mother nor Aunt Ida – major characters in the film- appear in the book, but many of the voices in the book are incorporated into the film’s voice-over, and it is somehow intensely loyal to the book.

Our new play adaptation by Glenn Wilhide is different, and as faithful as we could make it, in its own way. Ronnie Blythe is the central character, and the action of the play is Ronnie remembering all his conversations with the villagers as he’s writing the book. Instead of taking place over one day, the play evolves through the seasons of one year.

Q) What inspired you to bring Akenfield back to life on stage fifty years after the film?

Ronnie gave a voice to rural people of the utmost obscurity. I find his solidarity incredibly moving, and inspiring. Akenfield has always been important to my family. My grandfather appears as the policeman in the film, and I was an extra in it. I believe my great grandfather may have been born in the poor house outside Stradbrook and ancestral trauma and ancestral memory run deep. I went to Ronnie’s memorial service at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, to pay my family’s respects, and the next day I woke with the idea of staging Akenfield.

Adapting Akenfield for the stage opens up storytelling opportunities that are simply not available on film. Theatre is endlessly flexible. There is no limit to its metaphorical power. Film is considerably more linear, literal, and realism-based. Now that Akenfield exists as a beautiful new play by Glenn Wilhide, a local Suffolk school might, for instance, be able to read it in Drama class, and any pupil with a rural Suffolk accent will be at a premium to be cast for the main roles. Imagine what that could do for a child.

Q) How do you think this story speaks to contemporary rural life?

Many of the voices in the play describe unendurable economic exploitation, which had to be endured because there was no alternative. I fear that economic exploitation is on the rise again, in both urban and rural life.

Q) How does it feel to be directing a piece so deeply connected to your father’s work?

I’m profoundly happy about it. I think he’d be amazed and thrilled if he knew. But he didn’t like rehashes much, so I think he’d be even more thrilled that we’ve created a new piece of work which will stand or fall on its own merit.

Q) How have local people influenced or participated in this adaptation?

We are all local. Everybody involved in the Akenfield stage adaptation lives and works in Suffolk or was born and raised here like their parents before them. Rehearsals at Charsfield Village Hall, and Cransford Village Hall, have been so joyful, because all my collaborators – the entire cast and creative team - are as passionate about this project and as deeply connected to this rural history, through long roots, as I am. If not more. The cast and stage management are contributing bygones from their grandparent’s sheds for props, and I consult two or three of them often about how we can understand or interpret or verify certain things in the text.

Q) Can you tell us more about the decision to use an entirely local cast?

The East Suffolk voice is very particular, and the ancestral experience of this place is particular too. I would prefer not to have produced and directed Akenfield at all, than to render it inauthentically, missing the nuances and blurring the edges of the truth. I think it’s possible to teach great actors such as Ralph Fiennes, especially if they have links to the area, how to speak Suffolk. But it takes time and hefty budgets which we do not have. So my decision was both an aesthetic and economic one.

My father used to say that in every group of 20 people, there are one or two who haven’t lost the ability to play; who are, in some way, natural actors. So I set about trying to find them. I grew up in a lot of places, including Los Angeles and Paris on my mother’s side – but my father loved to work in the countryside, and my memories of Stratford on Avon, and the downs around Glyndebourne, have left me quite sure that unspoiled countryside is a perfect place to aim high creatively.

Q) What role will Finn and Rowan Collinson’s live music play in shaping the mood of the production?

Finn and his sister Rowan play so beautifully together, and are creating a strong presence on stage – sometimes part of the action. Their music sometimes lightens the mood, sometimes intensifies it, taking the emotion on stage into the abstract. Their grandfather lived next door to Ronnie Blythe across the fields, and drove Ronnie to church on Sundays. They are personally deeply connected to Akenfield, like the rest of us.

Q) Why was it important to include music rooted in local traditions?

I think a passage from Ronnie’s book will give you the best answer. Fred Mitchell, Horseman (from The Survivors chapter) says;. “But I have forgotten one thing – the singing. There was such a lot of singing in the villages then, and this was my pleasure, too. Boys sang in the fields, and at nights we all met at the Forge and sang. The chapels were full of singing. When the first war came, it was singing, singing all the time. So I lie; I have had pleasure, I have had singing."

There’s a long and lively traditional music culture in East Anglia. Glenn did extensive research, which Finn has elaborated on, and they have stitched local music into the first three acts, ending with a piece of Purcell. My father had a closer affinity to classical music, and both he and Ronnie had links to Benjamin Britten who was originally going to write an Akenfield Suite for the film. But I wanted to honour the folk music of this area, so vibrant in villages like Blaxhall and Laxfield, and I think it will resonate well with contemporary audiences.

Q) What do you hope audiences will take away about Suffolk’s heritage and farming communities?

I hope they will feel reconnected, and somehow find themselves in it.

Q) Why should audiences come along?

The play is funny and profound and very moving. The set by Laurence Edwards is incredibly beautiful. The performers are a revelation and the musicians very special. All of us have worked our hardest to give audiences a truly unforgettable evening.

Akenfield plays at Leiston Cinema in Suffolk on the 11th October 2025.

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