By Hook or By Crook • Holt Forest (2004)
What is the value of woods? Who or what are woods for?
About the production
Following research and meetings with local people, almost 50 adults and children (ages 6-80 years) took part in By Hook or By Crook, in Holt Forest, devised and produced by Wimborne Community Theatre, in partnership with English Nature.
Some members of the audience said it was a way of learning about the woods through theatre, while others felt it was a magical experience ‘being out in the wood, especially in the warm rain under an umbrella – you could smell the earth and trees. And the lights, the walking, the sound of a twig breaking, the voices.’
The production was neither a play about history nor a documentary about ecology. It reflected what happened when a group of people entered a space (in their own lives as well as the forest) and gave time and energy to looking and thinking creatively.
Local people told us their Holt Forest stories, about people being lost, and stories about local characters, like Arthur Coffin, who lived in a cottage in the forest, and his son, Walt.
Others referred to the moment when national politics affected the fate of local girl, Amy Farrant, when her path crossed with that of the Duke of Monmouth in Holt parish. Different points of view about the forest surfaced: to what extent should it be managed by English Nature, how freely should horses be ridden on paths, should grazing be reintroduced, to what extent should the wood be promoted as a place for people and dogs to visit?
As well as these contemporary concerns, we explored the symbolism of forests, the realm of nature’s secrets, and as places for testing and initiation or a spiritual world which we penetrate to find meaning.
We hoped our interpretation would bring new visitors to the forest and indeed, over 50% of the audience had never visited the forest.
Photos
See photos of the production
See photos of the rehearsals
See photos of the the wood at Holt
Videos
Programme
Songs
Original songs written by Gill Horitz from WCT and Helen Porter, Musical Director.
View Song lyrics: Down in the Wood, Enter a Wood, Monmouth and the King, Forest Boundaries, By Hook or By Crook
St James First School Songs written in workshops with Helen Porter.
View Song lyrics: If Trees Could Talk, A Mean Old Fellow
© All songs are copyright of Helen Porter and Wimborne Community Theatre
Sound Files
Play all soundtracks from the production, illustrating the process involved in creating the play with individual scenes and links between each scene:
Individual Soundtracks:
- Interview with local residents, including Ian Nicholl from English Nature and Leonard Hiscock, born in 1914, and a resident of Holt Wood all his life.
- Tony Horitz, WCT Director, explores Holt Wood for sounds and locations with the children, artists and Ian Nicholl from English Nature. Rehearsal of the children’s scene. Warm up for the first performance. Snatches of songs.
- Scene 3 and linking soundscape to Scene 4. Song: Forest Boundaries. Scene 3: The Stately Oak. Sounds from the wood as the audience moves to the next scene: children playing, shouts of the lost rider etc.
- Scene 8: Reunion and Finale Song: By Hook or By Crook
- The audience‘s chatter dies away as they leave the wood leaving only the sounds of night birds.