5 STARS, August 16-27. Showing at the Pleasance, In Loyal Company is a one man show by David William Bryan that looks at the life of his great-uncle Arthur 'Joe Robinson' during WW2
One man shows are notoriously hit and miss, get it right and you have something riveting, but misjudge it and you have something closer to potential disaster. Luckily David William Bryan’s captivating portrait of his great-uncle Arthur “Joe” Robinson’s life during World War Two falls unequivocally into the first camp, for rarely has an hour passed so swiftly or in so engrossing a manner.
Based upon the known facts of Joe’s life Bryan (who’s also responsible for the script) has filled in any gaps in his story by virtue of imaginative reconstruction, starting with vivid sketches of Joe’s days in Liverpool where he grows up, one amongst six siblings, a cheerful lad secretly pining for a local girl called Mary. When a close friend is killed in a Birkenhead bombing raid that devastates his area the traumatic event proves the catalyst that propels Joe into enlisting.
He’s sent abroad and eventually posted to Singapore where he has the misfortune to become a prisoner of war under the Japanese, one of the many men conscripted to work on the infamous Burma railway (harrowing scenes familiar for anyone who’s seen David Lean’s Bridge on the River Kwai film.) Missing in action, his fate unknown to those at home Joe has to try and endure the many privations with which he’s faced. The comradeship between the prisoners is beautifully depicted and it’s certainly the understated humanity of the piece which offers its dramatic lynchpin.
The show moves at a breakneck pace, one scene quickly segueing into another, but throughout Bryan is superb at conveying every facet of Joe’s experience, from all the ebullience of his early life in Liverpool, his long days in the “pba” or “poor bloody infantry” and the sheer bone-crunching exhaustion that marks his final days in captivity, desperately trying simply to survive and return home. His constantly shifting body language is as expressive as the excellent script which positively crackles with energy; there’s not a flabby moment in sight here, everything is integral to the plot. By the hour’s conclusion one feels emotionally wrung out for sure but also humbled and enlightened.
Tickets: edfringe.com
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