It's always fun, at a production by the Oxford School of Drama, with its distinguished record of placing its graduates in leading companies, to try to spot the stars of the future. The two plays Lark Rise and Candleford, both by Keith Drewhurst and based on Flora Thompson's trilogy, staged on alternate evenings (until tonight) in the gardens of the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, have sizeable casts and offer ample opportunity for star-spotting.

I saw Lark Rise, which presents a day in the life of a poor community in rural Oxfordshire. In the course of it, agricultural workers start to bring in the harvest, an old man is taken off to the workhouse, a 12-year-old girl goes in search of work, and a family plans their move to the town. And all the while, women gossip, locals sing lustily and children repeatedly demand to know why they are so poor.

The family at the centre of it all are Albert and Emma Timms, and their children Laura (pronounced Laara) and Edmund. Albert (Peter McMillan) is a bricklayer who calls himself a stonemason and is generally thought to have ideas above his station. Emma (Jennifer Shakesby) is regarded by the locals in much the same way: yet the couple have the last laugh as they look forward to what they hope will be a better future.

It is the actors playing the two children who really caught my eye. Carley Birch is superb as the young Laura, with all the awkwardness of a shy teenager when she is thrust into the limelight to introduce the play, and to tell us that there will be a break in the middle to use the privy. She does a sterling job in coping with her younger brother and has a lovely singing voice as well. Claire Daly, playing Edmund, gives an equally fine performance, pestering his family with his endless questions.

There are strong performances in supporting roles from a number of actors, and along with the pleasant setting it all makes for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Do be prepared, though, to spend most of the two hours on your feet and if you suffer from hay fever come suitably prepared.