A spectacular Frome Festival gala event on Sunday 9th July at Rook Lane Chapel will celebrate the life and work of the poet Edward Thomas.
On 9th April 1917, the poet Edward Thomas was killed on the Western Front in France at the height of the First World War. He has strong connections with the Frome area, often staying at Dillybrook Farm near Rode. He knew the River Frome well, and loved to swim at the weir at Tellisford.
The event follows Rook Lane Arts Trust’s major project ‘Home of our Delights’ which charted the impact of the First World War on the village of Mells. The event begins at 7pm, tickets are £15, and are on sale at the Frome Festival Box Office at the Cheese and Grain Hall in Frome.
Extracts from prose works and poetry of Edward Thomas will be read by Stephanie Cole and James Laurenson. New Zealand-born actor James Laurenson has had a distinguished career in the theatre. He has appeared in numerous Shakespeare plays, including TV productions of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. He has had roles in many well-loved TV series, from Z-Cars and Cagney and Lacey to Morse, Prime Suspect and Father Brown. His films range from an early appearance in ‘Women in Love’ to the more recent box-office hit ‘Posh’.
Stephanie Cole is one of England’s best-loved actors, famous for comic roles in TV series such as Open All Hours and Keeping Mum, as well as dramas such as Tenko. Her West Country connections began with her early training at the Bristol Old Vic. Honoured with an OBE, she made a popular appearance in ‘Coronation Street as Sylvia Goodwin. (2011–13).
Both James and Stephanie have appeared in leading roles at Bath’s Theatre Royal in recent years – James as part of Peter Hall’s summer repertory season, and Stephanie in Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’. Both are keen fans of the poetry of Edward Thomas and will be reading their own favourite Thomas programmes. Frome’s own Martin Bax, ex-RSC and National Theatre actor and Founder and President of the Frome Festival, will provide a linking commentary written specially for this evening by Frome writer John Payne.
In the first part of the evening, Matthew Hollis, author of the widely praised biography of Thomas – ‘Now All Roads Lead to France’ – will be speaking about the life and work of Edward Thomas. Among other prizes his book won the 2011 Costa Biography Award. He will talk especially about Thomas’ final years, his friendship with the American poet Robert Frost, and his fateful (and fatal) decision to join the Army in 1915. Books will be on sale during the interval.
In 1913 Thomas cycled from London to the Quantocks preparing a book called ‘In Pursuit of Spring’. A recently discovered set of Thomas’ photographs from this trip includes shots of West Wiltshire and North Somerset, including Norton St Philip and Bradford-on-Avon. These will be shown in digital form as a slide show in the café at Rook Lane Arts Centre, Frome, on the evening of the performance. The bar will be open before the performance and during the interval.
