麻豆社

by Elizabeth Gaskell
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan

Margaret ..... Patsy Ferran
Mr Hale ..... Paul Chahidi
John Thornton ..... James Cartwright
Mrs Thornton ..... Pooky Quesnel
Mrs Hale ..... Ruth Everett
Frederick ..... Colin Ryan
Dixon ..... Felicity Montagu
Higgins ..... Sean Gilder
Boucher ..... Lloyd Thomas
Mrs Boucher ..... Evie Killip
Leonards ..... Luke Nunn
Inspector ..... Jonathan Forbes
Old Man ..... Roger Ringrose
Old Woman ..... Joanna Monro

Directed by Sally Avens

The Hale family have moved North to Milton, an industrial mill town. Margaret's friendship with Bessy, a young mill girl who died, has brought her into close contact with the suffering of the workers. Now Bessy's father, a union leader, has called a strike and Margaret finds herself caught in the middle between the workers and the mill owner, John Thornton, one of her family's only acquaintances. Gaskell's great novel still resonates today in its portrayal of the north-south divide and its themes of class, gender and social responsibility.