Story of The Land Girls comes to Lowestoft

Lilies On The Land: New national tour of Women’s Land Army play coming to Lowestoft

Lilies On The Land explores and celebrates the sometimes overlooked role of women in the country’s effort during the Second World War. First created 10 years ago, this play is embarking on a national tour including performances here at the Marina.

Throughout the countryside farmers were struggling to meet demand as most able men were drafted to fight leaving their workforces decimated. However, it was the women of this country that took up the call to keep Britain’s mouths fed.

Whether fondly remembered through rose-tinted glasses, or glumly felt like an old shrapnel wound, the selfless women of the Land Army never forgot their experience during the war. It is from these letters, diaries and remembrances that Theatre company ‘The Lions Part’ originally created Lilies on the Land.

Emma Butler Smith – now Chef Executive of the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft - worked for the Lions part, the company who devised the piece back in 2001. Following an open letter in Saga Magazine asking for any memories of the Women’s Land Army, 140 letters flooded in with memories, recollections, newspaper cuttings & wartime memorabilia. “It took days to sift through the boxes of letters received - many accompanied by photographs - with stories of hardship, comradery, friendship and adversity leaping off the page. The company devised Lilies on the Land from all those memories.”

Emma was General Manager for the Lions Part and played a fundamental part in bringing the show to a wider audience and getting the script published. Having then produced the West End London run of 2010 and further UK tours in 2011 and 2012, Emma was particularly excited to be able to bring this new tour from Apollo Theatre Company to the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft. “Working on Lilies on The Land framed a really memorable part of my life and the show still holds a very special place in my heart. As a history freak, a theatre maker, and as a woman Lilies has a lot of resonance with me. So naturally when Apollo Theatre Company approached us with this tour It didn’t take me long to say yes. I also think that as a rural area which played a big part in Britain’s agricultural progress during the 1940s, the play will really resonate with people in Lowestoft and East Suffolk.”

You can see Lilies on The Land at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft on Thursday 6^th October 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Both performances will be accompanied by stage text and British Sign Language interpretation. Book now!