BARNARD Castle-based vintage tractor enthusiast John Moore has exhibited his iconic 1957 Fordson Major at many varied events over the years, but a recent request from The Castle Players must surely be among the most bizarre.
The Players are in the middle of rehearsals for their winter tour of Stewart Howson’s award-winning comedy about farming life in the early years of World War II, These Things Do Happen.
They contacted John as the play’s central character also just happens to be a Fordson tractor.
So it came to pass that on one wild and windy day at a farm on the outskirts of Barnard Castle, Teesdale-based actor Ben Pearson, who plays the eponymous tractor in the play, came face-to-bumper with his mechanical alter ego.
John kindly agreed to show Ben and his fellow actors round his tractor and explain some of the finer details of keeping vintage engines running smoothly and in good working order.
All this was music to Ben’s ears.
He explained: “At the start of the play, I’m bought at auction and my new owners try in vain to start my engine. Eventually, after several mishaps, they get me ticking over and I’m put to work ploughing the fields.
“Most of my lines are onomatopoeic, rhythmic engine noises, so it was great to actually hear a proper vintage engine purring away.”
Audiences will get the chance to see what other hilarious antics Ben and his fellow players get up to when the play starts its tour later this month.
The production opens at The Witham on Saturday, January 27, and then tours local venues until February 25, including a performance at The Georgian Theatre Royal, in Richmond, on February 16.
