My new play Folk focuses on two Somerset sisters whose – uncredited – recall of traditional songs helped Cecil Sharp save the
music from extinction. It’s an ambivalent legacy
My play began in a flash of inspiration, but it would take me 10 years to finish it. At one point I completely discarded it as a failed project, then Hampstead theatre’s Roxana Silbert inspired me to go back. Covid interfered and the production was delayed, making me fear it might never see the light of day; then
BBC Radio 3 included my adaptation in their Drama on 3/Culture in Quarantine series. Now, finally, the play has a full production at Hampstead theatre. I have a history of burning manuscripts that don’t please me, but luckily this one had escaped the
fire.
I grew up in Somerset, first in Glastonbury, then in a small village on the edge of the Somerset Levels. Back in Glastonbury in 2009 I went to see an exhibition at the Rural Life Museum about Cecil Sharp and folk music. Sharp collected songs from 1903 until 1924, and founded what is now the English Folk Song and Dance Society.