The Roses of Eyam is a historical drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 by Don Taylor

Don Taylor (director)

Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...

 about The Great Plague

Great Plague of London

The Great Plague was a massive outbreak of disease in the Kingdom of England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease is identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector...

 that swept Britain in 1665/66. It is largely based on the events that happened in the 'Plague Village' of Eyam

Eyam

Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire, England. The village is best known for being the "plague village" that chose to isolate itself when the plague was discovered there in August 1665, rather than let the infection spread...

 in Derbyshire, between September 1665 and December 1666 . Published in 1970, The Roses of Eyam had its world premiere at The Northcott Theatre

Northcott Theatre

The Northcott Theatre is a theatre situated on the Streatham Campus of the University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, England.-History:The Northcott is the seventh building in Exeter to be used as a theatre....

 in Exeter, Devon on 23 September 1970.

Description

The script requires a large cast, within which there must be a core of actors prepared to learn extensive parts and portray passionate and sustained emotion. The play best suits an atmospheric setting such as a Norman church or Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 Manor House

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

, where it can be performed in the round

Theatre in the round

Theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre is any theatre space in which the audience surrounds the stage area...

. Taylor himself filmed the story for television in 1973 .

The Roses of Eyam was originally intended for an adult audience but has become part of children's theatre. The play is now a set text in many British schools for students of English Literature and Drama.

TV production

A television production of The Roses of Eyam was broadcast on BBC2 on 12 June 1973 and produced at the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios. Don Taylor himself adapted the stage play for television and he directed it.

Outline

It begins as educated Anglican clergyman the Reverend William Mompesson

Reverend William Mompesson

William Mompesson was an historically important clergyman, whose decisive action when his Derbyshire parish, Eyam, became infected with the plague in the 17th century averted more widespread catastrophe....

 receives the living from his benefactors, the Saville family. A 'King's Man', he is replacing the previous Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 incumbent, Thomas Stanley who has refused to comply with the 1662 Act of Uniformity

Act of Uniformity 1662

The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...

 which makes use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer compulsory.

The early part of the play establishes that the village is still divided between Royalist

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 and Roundhead

Roundhead

"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

 sympathisers. Meanwhile, local tailor

Tailor

A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...

 George Vicars takes delivery of a large consignment of cloth from London. Within days the village is stricken by plague.

Families shut themselves away in their homes fearing that contact with others will invite the infection. With the onset of cold weather in autumn the number of cases falls but rises again when the warm weather comes in spring. An exodus of the village begins but Mompesson and Stanley put aside their differences to persuade the villages to stay put until the plague is over. The villagers are reminded that if they leave they will be welcome nowhere and will die as outcasts and vagrants , taking many other innocents with them. The villagers voluntarily decide to isolate themselves. Food is left for them by the county High Sheriff

High Sheriff

A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...

 at stones marking the limits of the quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

. As the play evolves the audience moves from location to location and the action intensifies as the village empties.

Some villagers build shacks in the hills, or live in caves, to be away from the infection. The deaths continue through the summer with hardly anyone left to bury the dead. Grass grows in the village streets. Both rectors have doubts at their actions but eventually the dying ceases and the survivors learn they have been successful with no other cases of plague occurring in the county.

Some humour is included by the mad orphan boy "Bedlam" who sings and dances through the worst times and the two cantankerous old yokels Unwin and Merril.

In some productions each corpse reappears in ghostly white make-up until the audience is surrounded by keening wraiths.

'Reception'

Whilst reception to the play as a whole is generally varied from performance to performance, the play has been described by 10GZ of Calday Grange Grammar School, England, as 'the dullest two hours ever put into script format' in 2007.