First In The Field ‐ The Secrets Of Radar

A new play by local playwright Suzanne Hawkes to be performed at various local venues Spring 2010

An Island of Secrets – rumours of a Death Ray – strange towers rising above the Manor ‐ flashing lights in the dead of night and the ever present threat of invasion. Will life for the villagers of Orford and Bawdsey ever be the same again? And will the boffins come up with a workable plan before the Luftwaffe start their bombing raids in earnest?

After the ‘War to end all Wars’ there was no stomach among politicians in Britain to contemplate another conflict. But by the middle years of the 1930s it was obvious to some that there would be no choice. What was also obvious was that this next war would be won or lost in the air – and Britain was very unprepared.

For those who recognised the threat one question seemed to have priority – what will stop the bomber getting through?

The answer lay with a small group of boffins on a windswept spit of land on a desolate stretch of the East Coast who against the odds, with minimal resources, Heath Robinson prototypes and with time running out worked in secret to perform a miracle and develop the ultimate in defence technology – the system that would become known as RADAR.

This is their story – and the story of the ordinary men and women who worked alongside them both on Orfordness and at Bawdsey Manor in the years leading up to the pivotal battle of the skies in 1940 ‐ the battle that would determine whether Britain would stand or fall to the German might.

This is a fictional drama based on fact. Using documented records of the boffins and the oral and written records of those who worked with them as assistants and radar operators, ferrymen and security guards, this play will dramatise the events leading up to the Battle of Britain as seen through their eyes, and the struggle to develop a working defence chain of radar stations before the threat of German invasion became reality.

Suzanne has written a number of successful plays about local issues including Refugee Café, Breaking the Chain, Becoming Orwell and Suffragette! which have been performed in venues including Sir John Mills Theatre and the New Wolsey Studio.

Tickets: £8/£7 (concessions) are available from the Box Office 01473 295900.

WVB-CTS