An August Bank Holiday Lark follows the stories of a rural community in East Lancashire and witnesses their personal transitions from exuberance to touching naivety as they encounter loss with courage and humanity in the midst of World War I.

skilfully interweaving three time strands ... It is deeply affecting ... This is popular ensemble theatre in traditions stretching from Moliere to Meyerhold and beyond: vibrant, entertaining and meaningful. Observer McAndrew's lyrical, beautifully constructed drama captures the wanderlust of a generation for whom a patriotic war seems fair exchange for a life of parochial tradition. Guardian warm-hearted, poignant drama ... pays tribute to the long-dead in more than words. Daily Telegraph McAndrew delineates a host of characters with dexterity and tenderness, an ear for dialect and much delightful humour. The Times themes [of war] evocatively addressed ... a deeply moving spectacle helping us peer back into the lost world. Independent

Deborah McAndrew is a British writer and actor whose adaptation of The Bells by Leopold Lewis (Northern Broadsides Theatre Company) opened at the Viaduct, Halifax in 2004. Her first original play, Vacuum, premiered with the same theatre company. Her versions of Nikolai Gogol's A Government Inspector, with the action transplanted to a corrupt Yorkshire hamlet, and The Grand Gesture, adapted from Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide, are published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.