"A fine and very moving show. Highly recommended."
Credit: Lisette Barlow
This is a brilliant and complex entertainment, by turns comic, bitterly satirical and angry – a series of sketches, songs and dances in a music hall setting presided over with great panache by a ringmistress/MC, (Lisette Barlow) wielding a whip. The tunes, jokes, laments and mockery combine to evoke a country at war and a people struggling to cope with and make sense of, a catastrophe that lasts for years and devastates every part of life and society.
Beautiful melodies and poignant, biting lyrics provoke tears of sadness or anger. Jolly songs about flirtation and young love on the home front, alternate with the trench soldiers’ songs of longing for home, or derision at the idiocy and cowardice of their leaders, or fear of being gassed and killed.
The depressed mood induced by terrible facts is soothed or lifted, again and again, by jokes and songs, but the stirring music is undercut by the lyrics – clever, often rueful, mocking or angry, and sometimes just very sad. At an interfaith service a priest tells the troops that, whatever their religion, God is on their side in the war. To the tune of ‘What a Friend We Have In Jesus’ the soldiers sing ‘When this lousy war is over, no more soldiering for me’ ending with a long drawn out, doleful, ‘A-a-a-men’. ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ becomes ‘Joe Soap’s Army’ which mocks ‘… our old commander safely in the rear.’
Credit: Lisette Barlow
In some sketches anger predominates with the feeling that the ‘poor bloody infantry’ has been betrayed – by politicians, military leaders or the wealthy. Field marshals are shown intriguing about how to use their political connections to advance their military careers. Members of an international upper class chat on a grouse moor about the economics of weapons manufacture and the advantages of investing in it.
Field-marshals’ claims of high morale amongst the troops and acceptable or reasonable losses (men killed and maimed) in battle are grimly contradicted by the facts – of millions killed and negligible gains achieved – which are presented on a screen on the back wall of the set. The propaganda or spin brings to mind examples from much more recent conflicts and national disasters (Iraq, Syria) where the same questions recur in vain search for an answer: ‘How did we get into this mess? How can we end the slaughter?’
The ensemble playing is very impressive – ten actors take on innumerable parts with deft and seamless changes of costumes, props and accents, and with proficient timing. There are standout performances by Lisette Barlow, not only as the aforementioned ringmistress/MC, but also in an hilarious turn as a drill sergeant and as a sombre priest; by Jennifer Packham who brings flirtatious charm, enthusiasm and humour as a bright young romantic to a number of parts and songs (Row, Row, Row; Hold Your Hand Out Naughty Boy); and by Vaughan Evans as a field marshal who has convinced himself, if no one else, that all the losses are justified and that one more big push will bring victory.
A fine and very moving show. Highly recommended.
Oh! What a Lovely War is on at the Mary Wallace Theatre until December 17. For tickets visit richmondshakespeare.org.uk
Check out Theatre/Arts Section for a comprehensive guide of what's on at your local theatre
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates on all the latest local theatre review
Sign up to our Weekly Newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and stories
