THE Land Girls Of Yorkshire is a delightful, light-hearted comedy inspired by true stories gleaned from Land Girls who toiled to help feed the nation during the dark days of the Second World War.

The production is in mid-tour and if you get the chance to go and see it do, as it is a joyful and uplifting experience.

The full house at Suddaby’s Crown Hotel in Malton certainly enjoyed it, and with two former Land Girls in the audience the opportunity for the occasion to be quite poignant was rejected in favour of frequent and spontaneous laughter at Kate Bramley’s witty and well observed script.

The dialogue is beautifully paced, and while you would expect the subject matter to deal with the facts and fashions of the day, Bramley cleverly digs beneath such veneers to expose the anxieties and aspirations of her two female characters.

Buff, (Natalie Bennett) with her confident, brash Scouse exterior, finds herself billeted with Biddy, (Lois Creasy) a Yorkshire lass whose innocence cautions her against Buff’s ambitions to form relationships with any or all of the American servicemen and Italian prisoners of war who reside nearby, including Giovanni, played on screen by Colin Moncrieff.

There are lots of lovely subtle lines, such as Buff wondering if meeting these men might affect her density, and the mention of Walter Pigeon (the Brad Pitt of the day) reminding them more of their hunger for food than love.

The play subliminally offers an interesting comparison between today’s consumer-obsessed society and an age where the lack of material possessions did not mean a famine of fun.

With none of our contemporary distractions, Buff and Biddy explore their dreams, hopes and plans, and have the time to find themselves. But Buff’s ambitions to become a singer prove to be the making of Biddy.

The characters grow on you, and it is a credit to the skills of Bennett and Creasy that by the end of the play you feel you really know the characters they portray.

The stage production is inventive too, and Jez Lowe’s music really defines the era and literally sets the tone.

This is a production brimming with creativity and talent and a large feather in the cap for Badapple Theatre>>