09/06/2026
Hotbuckle Productions will be at The Swallow Theatre near Whithorn this 28/29/30 June with The Return Of The Native. Here are some extracts from a really helpful review of the show...
"The good news is that Hotbuckle Theatre Company is back on the road … and the even better news is that 'The Return of the Native' is their most powerful production seen by me so far. An out-and-out tragedy is a most interesting choice, but fear not, even this tale of woes is riddled with adapter and director Adrian Preater's highly inventive playfulness.
Written in the 1870's, Thomas Hardy's not-quite-so-well-known Wessex novel deals with the loves, losses and betrayals of a handful of folk living on a desolate heathland in Dorset. The very remoteness of the place means there is limited choice when it comes to falling in love. Conflicting affections are inevitable; and it's the jealousies, greed and raw passions that drive all concerned to the brink.
The stage is set with a collection of wooden stools of differing height which, in true Hotbuckle fashion, become everything from a flaming bonfire, a thicket, a country stile and a crumbling riverbank. All four cast members provide the music; banjo, brass section and washboard. But actually, it is the sheer quality of the acting that is utterly hypnotising. ...
There are the much anticipated, trademark set-pieces ... Hotbuckle create stage-craft solutions that are so cleverly obvious, no one could possible have thought of them before.
But for all the fun and games, Hardy's dour morality faithfully underpins this pocket production of his stage-shy story. I'm sure he'd approve ..."
Review by Chris Eldon Lee, Shropshire.
Hotbuckle Productions
