Year 8 went to see 'Oh What a Lovely War!': read Ellie's review below.

‘Oh! What a Lovely Play’

At The Castle, the Blackeyed Theatre, a group of only five men, performed ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ (originally written by Joan Littlewood), a protest play and satirical musical, which helps us to understand the details of the Great War and how people changed socially, as did their opinions on this atrocity. Though parts were funny, the actors were actually portraying black humour. They used audience participation to involve us more in the play.

This play is all about the ‘War Game’, an ironic title because war was not funny at all. It shows the changing of society during: how the men felt at first, gallant and brave, later becoming miserable and down-hearted. The women thought less about duty and glory, becoming more involved with the war, making ammunition or helping in the battlefields as nurses; they became increasingly worried about who was going to die next.

The fact that there were only five actors meant that it must have been very difficult and confusing for them. However, the accents were very stereotypical, which made the characters hilarious. When the wrong accents were occasionally used or someone forgot their lines it was turned into a joke, which made errors funny and individual. Some powerful acting occurred when the actors stated that men were killed by their own side, like sheep, before pretending to be sheep dying. It may have looked humorous; however, the inner meaning was tragic.

The set was plain, with a bandstand for the men to play their instruments and the costumes hung on crosses, which finally revealed the graves of the dead men. The tables were cleverly used to resemble a car, a lectern in the church and the trenches. When I first stepped into the theatre and the actors came out, wearing very odd clothes, I wondered if we had come on the wrong night! However, I realised that they were Pierrot costumes, which symbolised that they were oblivious to reality – exactly like the women who were sending their men to war. The tunes were songs sung in the trenches, music hall melodies or hymns with adapted words; these were hilarious. The songs were both to provoke thoughts about how the men felt and also to allow the other actors time to change their costumes, such as ‘Never Mind’ and ‘I don’t want to join the Army’.

They projected a slide show of the Great War and the dreadful statistics, which were unbelievable! The lighting was simple but gave us a feel of the different atmospheres, like the dark trenches (a blue light) and the cheerful, but ironic, War Game scene (very bright light). The instruments were used sparingly, but effectively, for sound effects. For example, the drum was used for gunshots and the trombone was used for the car as it trundled along the bumpy road.

I really enjoyed the play because it had a big impact on how I feel about the 1914-18 war. I now understand how the men felt in the trenches and how the generals were so incompetent. I particularly enjoyed the scene when the English general is trying to speak French to the French general and they are getting nowhere. I was also deeply moved by the part where the Irish go into war with their music and when they get killed, by ‘friendly’ fire.

The performance added to the knowledge we are gaining studying war literature and was also a great night out whilst dramatically illustrating the horror of war.   Ellie Brawn Y8