Alison Neil ‘The Fossil Lady of Lyme’ - Friday 28^th Feb 7.30pm

‘Unmissable entertainment’; ‘Simply a masterpiece of theatre’; ‘The quality of the writing and acting are second to none’.

 A superb actress with numerous West End and international theatre credits under her belt (Stoppard, Ayckbourn, Alan Bennet etc), Alison Neil’s one woman show tells the extraordinary story of Mary Anning…. 

The uneducated daughter of an impoverished carpenter, Mary was brilliant, feisty and brave. Born just 200 years ago when the world was still deemed to have been created in 6 days, she played a key part in changing our view of evolution and religion; the accepted wisdom that God’s infallibility meant no creature could possibly have ‘failed’ and become extinct. She discovered the first complete fossil of a dinosaur in Great Britain aged just 12. Brutal hard work hunting for fossils and excavating the cliffs around Lyme Regis in all weathers, the scorn of the establishment, little or no credit for her pioneering and backbreaking work from ‘the clever men of science’….her story is amusing, sad, entertaining and moving. 

Read Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures or Curiosity by Joan Thomas (quite expensive but very good) for a great insight into her life.

Remarkable creatures one and all….this is a fabulous bit of live theatre. Truly fascinating stuff plus the usual richesse of treats in store at the village hall. Tickets from Hat (01747 840057;hatpalmer@onetel.com), Nick Hall (nickrhall@waitrose.com) or the garages at Bourton and Zeals. Do come along for the event of the century.