Mud

Robert Holman's play Mud is his earliest full-length play (although it was first staged shortly after the play he wrote subsequently, The Natural Cause). Mud was first performed under the title Taking Stock at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 25 August 1974. The play is set on the North Yorkshire moors near Whitby, over the course of one very hot August. A group of lonely people converge on a 'rough and barren' patch of moorland. George Hardcastle, recently retired and grieving for his wife, has come on holiday to fish. Harold Pike, son of the local squire, has come to shoot. Alan Todd and Pauline Swailes have come to escape prying eyes. Hopes, dreams and fears play out as RAF fighter planes tear across the sky. The premiere production was directed by Chris Parr, and it was performed by John Normington, Ian Marter, Brian Deacon, Susie Blake and Gerald James.