The Ceremony of Innocence

Three eight year-old children, Alec Knightley, his cousin Alice Lyndon and the gardener’s son, Trevor Brook, meet in the grounds of Alec’s grandfather’s Hampshire estate during the months between Christmas and Easter.   As their games grow increasingly sinister – a process underlined by the use of adult actors – allegiances shift and social and sexual tensions are exposed.  The children become trapped in an emotional triangle in which innocence is permanently destroyed.

The Ceremony of Innocence was given a workshop production at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 1989.