A play by Martin Pritchard inspired by the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The play’s themes are thought provoking and explore the atrocities, nonsensical loss of life, tragedy and immorality of World Wars with the story set in the German Allied trenches of WWI. The story is told through the eyes and first-hand experiences of a German youth soldier called Paul Baumer played with sincerity and believability by Matt Todd. It follows his journey from youth recruitment at school inciting patriotism to the Kaiser to his ultimate demise on a quiet day during the war where the daily detail reported that ‘All is quiet on the western front.”
I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting this delightful theatre almost in the town centre of Stockport and I wasn’t disappointed with a great FOH team, Box Office, a lovely bar and seating for patrons and an enormous theatre space with a wide stage
The set was a simple barricade structure on a darkened set and the play begins where Paul is hiding in a shell hole sheltering from the gunfire when another soldier leaps into safety and Paul defensively stabs him viciously to death. We flash backwards to Paul and his peers in school at the end of their educations and preparing for adulthood and being groomed by their schoolmaster for the army; fighting for their country. We then watch the swift transition for childhood to a ‘manhood’ fighting as cannon fodder in the WWI battlefields. It is there we watch him and his group dwindle rapidly under a succession of attacks from enemy fire, loss of limb and other gruesome deaths.
Paul’s school chums who follow him into the trenches are played with enthusiasm and commitment by a group of mostly young and energetic actors who then continue to play a multitude of roles throughout this biopic tale. I counted 36 roles played by just 12 actors including the lead. All cast members were effective and drove the narrative effectively with excellent costuming by the Garrick’s wardrobe team.
In the field the men are starved of food, love and attention and meet three Frauleins played by Beki Smith, Hannah Bracegirdle and Alison Abel who contributed beautifully in the Fraulein scene where they arrange to meet the German soldiers in exchange for food and ultimately sex. This illustrated the depths of desperation that war must - and still does - bring. Later on, the girls played a range of characters including Paul’s mum which although acted well required something else to suspend the disbelief – perhaps a wig?
Matt Todd’s Baumer really hit the spot as he played it with a controlled vulnerability which left room for him to grow and show his growing disconcert for the war and its ‘values’. When he returned home for a visit to find his ailing, terminally ill mother and his father wants to parade him at the Bier Keller as he is so proud, Baumer’s anger really resonated as he yelled at his sister that they wouldn’t be so proud of him if they knew what evil and wicked things that he had done. He compared his existence to that of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ which was an excellent analogy to what the audience was watching happen to Baum and his comrades in the trenches as they gave their lives so willingly.
One fellow soldier who was shot and amputated knew that he was going to die and farewelled his comrades and told them to take his boots as he would have no further need – a darkly humorous moment.
Sterling support from all cast members as they acted through a challenging play which was mostly dark to match the lighting plot in the trenches. The light rose as Baum grew in realisation of the atrocities that he was embedded in. In the final and moving scene, he is shot as he draws an innocent bird, singing sweetly, sitting on a tree, in the middle of no-man’s land, oblivious to its surrounding and the death scene around it. This strong metaphor was the final scene as Baum – with a serene and accepting smile – is shot.
Congratulations to Stockport Garrick and especially its director ( and actor) David Meller for bringing to life a wonderful piece theatre questioning and challenging the the futility of war and its participants.
From the programme: ‘The grave difficulties endured by those who faced armed conflict and lost their lives should be recognised… and honoured…but in the process, war itself should not be honoured… nor should the suffering and the deaths of others be ignored.’
Reviewer - Kathryn Gorton
on - 17/10/18
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