These Things Do Happen
February 2024

Written by Stewart Howson as part of his Country Voices cycle of plays, and for this production set in and around Darlington and the Tees Valley, the ‘star’ of the show is a Fordson N Type tractor – Florrie – brilliantly brought to life and imparting character into a petrol tank, some drainpipe and a dangling tin can.

This play taps directly into the human desire to personify machines; we have all given our favourite car a talking to when we’ve been on a long journey or pleaded with the noisy old boiler to make it through another cold spell with the promise of getting them that much overdue service as soon as Spring comes – indeed, by the end there was a collective sense of concern when the old tractor feared she was about to be replaced.