Thomas Hardy Drama Festival, Dorchester

At the Thomas Hardy Drama Festival in Dorchester, Dorset, this scene from The Distracted Preacher shows Mrs Newberry surprising the parson with her novel way of filling the barrel to replace shortage. The famous old Corn Exchange saw the fourth production of a Hardy play acted by Thomas Hardy's fellow townsmen, dramatised by the novelist himself. It was reported at the time that the men who were to play in The Three Wayfarers and The Distracted Preacher stood at their shop doors all afternoon, with fitful glances every now and then at The Corn Exchange clock, as if impatient for it to point to the hour of the dress rehearsal. The old King's Head Hotel, which features in The Mayor of Casterbridge, had for days been filling up with visitors

Backdrop Corn Distracted Dorchester Filling Newberry Parson Preacher Props

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