28th July 2010

DORCHESTER: Hardy fans gather for annual conference

by Anita Harries

The 19th International Hardy Conference and Festival was launched in the county town in a year which marks the 170th anniversary of Thomas Hardy’s birth.

In the words of Tony Fincham, Chairman of the Thomas Hardy Society “this conference draws together the disparate strands of Hardyan interest – from the acclaimed academic to the lay enthusiast to express through lecture, seminar, music, drama, film, walk and outing – and most essentially Poetry – the living, vibrant world of Thomas Hardy at the close of the first decade of the 21st century”.

A reception and buffet supper was held at the Thomas Hardye School for delegates and guests.

With visitors from all corners of the globe it had a truly international feel as people gathered in homage to arguably Dorset’s greatest writer.

The Mayor of Dorchester, Councillor Leslie Phillips, and his wife Vonty, attended the launch event, where the guest speaker was Jon Murden, Director of the Dorset County Museum and recent recipient of the famed Hardy manuscripts.

Following the launch party, Sir Andrew Motion presented readings from his own works.

Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, and knighted for his services to literature in 2009, the man with the velvet voice read from his latest collection of poetry, “The Cinder Path”, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

A keen scholar, and more than a little knowledgeable about Thomas Hardy and Dorchester’s other renowned poet William Barnes, he also led a question and answer session about his life and works.

n Fresh from their success at the Lighthouse, Poole, the New Hardy Players performed the Mayor of Casterbridge for a final time in front of a packed United Church in Dorchester.

Forming part of this year’s Hardy Festival, this now much acclaimed adaptation of perhaps one of the best known of Hardy’s novels brought out the best in the Players as they gave their all before the current Mayor of Casterbridge, Councillor Leslie Phillips, and his wife Vonty.

The tale of the volatile Michael Henchard and his efforts to make amends for his past mistakes – his drinking and the selling of his wife Susan and baby daughter – the revealing of his personal weaknesses and somewhat tangled love life, and the resulting tortuous web of deceit and betrayal, came to life as the New Hardy Players all gave truly wonderful performances.

The role of Michael Henchard has been moulded to perfection by Mark Kelly, Dee Thorne has become the flirtatious Lucetta, and Dougal carries the part of the genial Scotsman Donald Farfrae quite brilliantly. And it doesn’t matter how many times you see the play, the court scene with the somewhat mad furmity player and Sue Worth at her hilarious best, always has the audience hooting with laughter.

Devina Symes has adapted this emotive and tragic tale superbly. Poignant but with wonderful touches of humour as Hardy toys with the Casterbridge characters he knew so well, the parts were cleverly written for the people who played them.

Everyone from Emma who took the role of Elizabeth Jane to narrator Sonia Morris who linked the scenes together and the musicians who are now very much an integral part of the New Hardy Players, put in performances to be proud of. The warm and enthusiastic applause of the audience passed fair judgement on the New Hardy Players and the Mayor of Casterbridge. “Character is fate” Hardy himself wrote about Michael Henchard, and this was demonstrated to perfection by Dorchester’s most famous band of amateur thespians.

PICTURE: Michael Henchard prepares to sell his wife Susan and baby daughter

DORCHESTER: Hardy fans gather for annual conference

DORCHESTER: Hardy fans gather for annual conference

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