A large cast period drama (8 Female, 10 Male) for school drama groups, youth theatres and Amateur groups (57 pages).

The text includes comprehensive background notes and suggested activities to introduce your group to the themes, the context and the underlying science explored in Scenes from the Fair.

Synopsis
" To improve humanity – surely that must be the goal of any right minded thinking man"

It’s the summer of 1914 and to Will the future is both bright and obvious. To him the new science of eugenics is the answer , succeeding where religion and politics have failed to eradicate the ills of society – crime, poverty, the criminal, the drunkard, the feeble minded.

It’s Fair Day. The young people of the village flirt and fight, gossip and bicker. They go on rides and marvel at the freak show. Make plans for their own futures. To Emily, for whom the future as Squire’s wife seems depressingly clear cut, Will’s ideas are a breath of life; the only way forward, the only chance of escape in a society where options are few. But that is not to say it will be easy to achieve that future.

Four years later and it’s Fair Day once again. has Will or Emily’s vision of the future been realised? What have the last four years brought to the young people of the village? Has their bright shining new tomorrow won through despite the traumas of the past four years?

Themes
Eugenics, inherited genetic disorders, the impact of the first world war, the influenza epidemic of 1918, sexuality and disability.

Background
Playwright Jonathan Hall worked with the Questors Youth theatre and Scientist Gilly Rendle. they explored the history of the Eugenics movement and mental illness. Scenes from the Fair was first performed by the Questors Youth Theatre at the Compass Theatre, Hillingdon on November 30th 2004.

Oberon Books

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