Oh! What a Lovely War - The Grand Theatre, Lancaster - 29/09/08
More musical than play, Joan Littlewood's masterful First World War production presents different aspects of the conflict, using projected dialogue, images and songs from the times, highlighting officer mentality at its worst, the homespun tales and reminiscences of the ordinary Tommy, and the tenderness of the meeting of ordinary German and British soldiers as they played football on no man's land and swapped presents during the Christmas ceasefire.
The behaviour of several nations who profiteered from the carnage is also attacked in this sharp and hard-hitting polemic. Yet for all that, it's no simple anti-war rant, but charms and challenges, makes you laugh and gives you a lump in the throat by turns.
Originally scored and produced for a large company and sizeable band, the piece is – rightly – often produced in schools. But Blackeyed Theatre staged it with a cast of five young men who, with deft costume changes, took the considerable number of parts, male and female, officers and other ranks, Brits and Germans. Not only that, they also provided a full musical accompaniment to the lyrics, and managed to play more than a dozen different instruments between them.
Such a level of versatility as this was all the more admirable as the pace of the show never flagged once.
The crowded house was impressively mixed, with school parties, pensioners and everyone in between. And they loved every moment This was evident from the older members of the audience singing along with the 'community songs', and from the youngsters who led the standing ovation at the end.
Michael Nunn
The show runs at the Charter Theatre, Preston, on Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15.
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