It’s April 1940 and Jocasta, Daphne and Dotty, will have to move from their school in idyllic Little Inkling, Sussex, to Buckinghamshire, where they will take refuge from the war. Lessons are suspended and they have two weeks left to have some fun and say goodbye to their friends. It’s a disaster for Daphne. All she wants is to be kissed before she’s seventeen, but now she’s got to move away, she may never see Gerald again! The girls decide to make one last raid on the old witch Miss Popplewell’s strawberry patch. But an intruder gets in first. Who is he? Is it the gypsies, a burglar, a foreign agent, even an escaped convict? The entire village goes into a panic. But they’re British! They must stick together.
In the meantime, will the girls get the strawberries? Will their kindly headmistress, Miss Tricklebank, confine them to their dorms? Will Daphne be kissed before she’s seventeen? You will have to be there to find out. The play is woven with poignancy and gently unearths buried things from Miss Popplewell’s past.
Egerton Park, Egerton Road, Bexhill-on-Sea TN39 3HN Starts 7.30pm. Visit www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk or ring 01323-501260. Bring your own chairs or rugs and a picnic.
