Genre: A dramatised one-actor children's book for older children and adults. A school class of about 7 year olds were mostly captivated, but it is a typically quite dark story ending by Morpurgo, so very suitable for adults too.
This was an absolute triumph for the sole youg actor; lasting 1 hr 15 mins, ( though it seemd a lot longer than that?!), but, but......
There were moments in the first half, setting his story in context, pre-war childhood reminiscent of Cider with Rosie, which just seemed to go on a rather a long time, and I started to wonder when we would get to the war story, which of course it was. A 16 year old volunteer in the great War. I won't give the ending as it it reduced me to tears.
Dare I say, despite the virtuosic acting, I felt this actually could have been enhanced by more actors, perhaps the girl in the story playing herself and mother, for instance to break up the storyline.
The play was ideally in two halves with an interval as it fell naturally and one needed a break, no less than the actor deserved one.
The war part was very cleverly created and without any props other than lighting, he took us to the horror of the fighting and trenches and ubiquitous mud, contrasted cleverly with loving mud as a child, down by the river.
It is eminently tourable; best at November time to play to Armistice Day, but have we all had enough plays on the First World War even if it is Michael Morpurgo basking in the success of War Horse?
5* performance; 3* play as it stands. perhaps I was just getting played out?!
JO Cheshire
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