A Remembrance Concert

A warm welcome awaited me at Trinity Methodist Church with the Unity Drama Group. The group had decided to put on ‘A Remembrance Concert’. The room was decorated with poppies, flags, and posters. I was given my flag to wave during the concert and told that the words were in the programme to join in.

This society is clearly a ‘one big family where everyone has the confidence to work on projects as a team’, as their Instagram biography attests. There was a clear relationship with the audience members, and everyone seemed to know each other – it was very heartwarming.

This was not only a concert of wartime pieces, but the cast used key phrases from recruitment posters of the eras, there were historical narrations, and key context to songs. There were moments of audience participation, a cappella numbers, comedy … you name it, we had it! I really enjoyed the monologues which I found very powerful during the evening.

One of my favourite sections was the Glen Miller section featuring some of my favourite music such as The Chattanooga Choo Choo, In the Mood, and The Moonlight Serenade. The audience even got up dancing. I must apologise at this moment in the review, as I was offered a dance by a lovely young lady, but due to a broken bone in my foot had to decline. I must thank the young lady though for her kind offer.

I really loved the fact that this wasn’t only a performance, this is teaching young people about history with historical songs, historical dances, and the telling of history through poetry and monologue.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy was another keen favourite of mine and I loved that we were even treated to some skat vocals. This was followed by Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree which I also adore. As an ex-Big Band musician, this part was great for me.

A standout moment though was the solo rendition of White Cliffs of Dover by Ash Campion. Ash stood and delivered this heart-wrenching number which is not an easy thing to do. You could see the audience welling up around the room and hear them joining in towards the end. This really stood out to me. Also, I must commend Ash on playing The Last Post at the end of the concert on bugle too. Very talented and very brave.

The Churchill speeches used between numbers added gravitas to the performance and again gave context. I wonder whether it would have been possible to add some on-stage movement/dance at these moments as a thought for your next concerts if you do something like this?

At the end of the concert, we had a two-minute silence, and a few words were said by the local minister who led us in thought and prayer.

This was a very emotional and poignant evening, and I would like to thank the group for allowing me to share in this with them.

I look forward to visiting you all again soon.

David J. Wall – Youth Coordinator (North West)

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