Farming on the stage

I'm always wary of farming when it's brought to the stage. The temptation is for writers and actors to descend into caricature: it's all exaggerated accents and stereotypical rustic sorts.

Not Farm Boy. I managed to catch the last performance of the current run at Greenwich Theatre and it was a beautiful piece of work. It got a big thumbs-up, too, from The Stage paper.

Based on the Michael Morpurgo book, this Daniel Buckroyd adaptation was a tight, one-hour affair featuring just two actors: John Walters and Matt Powell, playing a grandfather and grandson in rural Devon.

Alongside an exploration of their relationship, there were glimpses of the First World War, insights into the changing face of farming, the uplifting story of a illiterate man learning to read and a horse versus tractor head-to-head, all leavened with splashes of humour.

The play delved into the past, but had a contemporary feel: the lad, having just done four years at Uni, had returned to the farm - and this issue of succession (and the draw of the land versus the pull of the bright lights) is a topical one.

Farm Boy was about what the young can learn from the old and what the old can learn from the young. A valuable lesson for farmers everywhere.