ON the day I went to see Oh What a Lovely War! at Lewes Little Theatre, it was reported the bodies of British soldiers who died in battle 90 years ago could be identified through DNA.
It was timely preparation for Joan Littlewood's musical evocation and critique about the carnage and disregard of human life in the First World War.
Here indeed were lions led by donkeys as the English class system pulled the strings to precipita
te a human disaster.
At one time Lovely War was regularly revived. Now productions are about as rare as the surviving campaigners, so Pat Shrimpton's production, designed by David Moon was timely.
Slickly staged with tap-dancing perrots, Shrimpton's production seemed at first a tad too glitzy; sure, the satirical edge was there but what about the mud and guts and overwhelming sense of tragedy?
Gradually the facts and figures projected over the proscenium arch pierced the mind like flying shrapnel. Sixty thousand men lost on the Somme on the first day; two and a half million killed on the Western Front.
"When this bloody war is over..." sang the cast. Of course there were those who didn't want it to end. Millionaires spread like poppies.
And Commander in Chief Douglas Haig estimated that if the losses of the two sides were sustained we would win because we had more men than Gerry.
This production had softer moments, too, like the Christmas fraternisation scene when men in both sets of trenches exchanged gifts.
The pierrots, who had to drop into a variety of roles and act as a chorus as well, were Alan Lade, Andy Hutchison, Chris Parke, Drummond Abrams, Ian Clegg, Nicholas Betteridge, Nick Cooper, Miles Jenner and Tony Potter. All have been mentioned in dispatches.
Also up for a gong are the equally versatile pierrettes, Belinda Sharpe, Dawn Boxall. Jenny Lloyd Lyons, Margaret Funnell, and Meg Depla-Lake.
In a town famed for the impact of its fireworks I just wish more could have been made with the whizz-bangs.
Mark Gale
