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SYNOPSIS FOR: Housewife, 49

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The Mass-Observation project was a non-governmental scheme designed to document and examine the lives of ordinary people. Nella Last participated in the project and signed her letters ‘Housewife, 49’, her age when she first began the correspondence. Her letters to Mass-Observation, often written in pencil, provide the narrative of the play as she documents her life. In some scenes, the staff of Mass-Observation are seen reacting to, and sometimes visibly moved by, her letters. During the course of the programme, Last moves from being an introverted, isolated, and depressed individual in a difficult marriage, to become an outgoing character who, through her voluntary work during wartime, becomes a backbone of the local community. At the end of the programme it is explained that Nella continued to write to Mass-Observation up until her death in 1968.

Genre: Drama