'The Corn Is Green' at the National Theatre

I've never seen 'The Corn Is Green' on stage and have only vague memories of the film with Katherine Hepburn and a young Toyah before she became a pop star. The perfect excuse for seeing the new production at the National Theatre.

It's a semi-autobiographical play by Emlyn Williams set in a little pit village in Wales before the First World War where children grow up speaking Welsh as their first language and are sent off to work in the local pit at a young age. That would've been Emlyn's fate if he hadn't been 'saved' and educated by an English teacher. That's the basic outline of the play, embellished here and there to create more drama and tension right up to the end. The old story of working class kid does good has been used many times but it still works and draws people in.

This production of the play was a bit odd in that it overlayed the play with the conceit of having the author in the play as well. It opens with a posh party, presumably in that there London, when the author escapes to get some fresh air and remembers his childhood in Wales, with the pitmen covered in grime and singing on their way home, and so the play starts. The author hovers around the action, intervening every now and then to point out that *that* didn't really happen, then rewinding the action to point out that *this* is what actually happened. And occasionally dancing with a sparkling flapper girl. At first I found that all a bit distracting, having the author as director, but then I ignored it. 

The lead as Miss Moffat, the teacher, was Nicola Walker and she gave a really strong performance, dominating each scene with an iron will to ensure that everyone will do her bidding. She faces resistance to setting up her school and gives up on the silly idea until she reads a short essay by one of the boys, Morgan Evans (played by Iwan Davies), and realises there is potential there so she can't give up the school. Over the years of teaching she decides to put the boy up for a scholarship to Oxford and he is selected so his future is secure. But then the bombshell arrives in the shape of a baby he fathered with the housekeeper's daughter...

I enjoyed the play and I really liked the largely bare stage with the company hanging round the edges of the set. I liked the references from the few English speakers that they couldn't understand the Welsh language of the locals, almost as if they were in India or Africa. The characters all seemed nicely rounded and believable (other the stupid squire character). Nicola Walker was excellent as the imperious Miss Moffat, the teacher who refuses to be a mere middle aged spinster but will still do something meaningful with her life. It's a powerful tale on lots of levels.