MEMBERS of the young actors group Whippersnapper will tread the boards for the romantic comedy The Lady’s Not for Burning in Wantage next month.

Their two performances of the 1948 play by Christopher Fry will take place at The Old Coach House, The Blue Boar, Newbury Street, on Sunday, November 7, at 3 and 7pm.

Set over three acts, the play is set in the Middle Ages and tuned into the world’s exhaustion and despair following the Second World War with a war-weary soldier who wants to die and an accused witch who wants to live.

The cast is as follows: Richard (an orphaned clerk) — Will Talbot; Thomas Mendip (a discharged soldier) —James Horne; Alizon Eliot — Poppy Deacon; Nicholas Devize — Josh Kerr; Margaret Devize (mother of Nicholas) —Georgie Wines; Humphrey Devize (brother of Nicholas) —Geoffrey Langrish; Hebble Tyson (the Mayor) — Ben Parr; Janet Jourdemayne — Millie Stringer; The Chaplain — Kyran Pritchard; Edward Tappercoom (a justice) — Charles Frederick; Matthew Skipps — Ben Parr.

Margaret Bateman, of Whippersnapper, said: “The Lady’s Not for Burning was a huge hit in the West End in 1949, transferred the following year to New York and became one of the most celebrated comedies of the 20th century. Post-war audiences revelled in the joyful exuberance of its language and loved it for its insistence that life was worth living.

“But fashions change, and there were Angry Young Men fuming in the corner! Osborne, Wesker, Kops, Pinter brought a new kind of theatre to our stages, and writers like Christopher Fry were suddenly old hat.

“Now, he is all but forgotten.”

Tickets for the play are priced at £6, £5 concessions, and are available from the Vale and Downland Museum, in Church Street, Wantage, on 01235 760176.