A Way of Life takes place at and around an upland farm and a public house in the North of England in the 2001, during the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease.
Research for the play involved interviews with farmers, officials from the then Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, smallholders, slaughtermen and farmer’s wives.
A Way of Life was accompanied by the exhibition 'In the Shadow. The Foot and Mouth Outbreak in West Durham' by Richard Grassick. The project was commissioned by The Rural Stress Information Network. An earlier version of the play was titled New Life. writer: Maureen Lawrence
director: Mike Bettison Maureen Lawrence writes :
What happens in this country has a bearing on the whole world, and the whole world affects what happens here. There is no safe place. The awareness of this inter-relatedness was something I met in many of the farmers and other business people, as well as government workers and national park employees…Now, when the means of control are being modified by global forces, the farmer feels increasingly coerced. Yet in the midst of so much confusion and unrest, people continue to live their lives with amazing fortitude and joy. A Way of Life is my attempt to celebrate this vitality.
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