The television scriptwriter and playwright Keith Dewhurst adapted Thompson’s trilogy into two plays, "Lark Rise" and "Candleford", which were performed in the Cottesloe auditorium of London’s National Theatre in 1978–9. Dewhurst selected just two days: the first day of harvest for "Lark Rise" and the first hunt meet of the new year, a winter’s day in January, for "Candleford". The plays try to make the audience recognize the value of a way of life, close to the land and countryside, that they could never know for themselves. “It will send most spectators out wiser and happier human beings...one of those rare theatrical occasions with a genuine healing quality”, wrote theatre critic Michael Billington of "The Guardian".