It'll be over by Christmas

This was a poignant play as a look back at World War I events from local script writers Gill Barlow and Colin Worswick with local references that brought home the true significance and memories to the full house audience.

A mix of poems, speeches, drama scenes, songs, and audience participation gave the tale of local village life and 2 contrasting families coping with their son going off to the war and life in the trenches. With a cast of 20 and nearly 30 characters they managed varying parts with ease, and cast from child to pensioner gave breadth of characters that were all played well. 

Action took place on a fixed split set in each act, depicting 4 areas nicely designed and dressed, that were separated by use of a projection screen for some scenes, and use of the space included the hall floor area as well as frequent use of front of tabs to maximise scenes.   Costumes were very nice and uniforms very appropriate to the time. All speech was heard clearly and songs used backing track that was nicely balanced.  

Working class Matriarch "Annie Hutchinson" was played by Helen Franks very nicely as the strong character, and supported very ably by Erica Shanks-Davison as excited daughter Amy and Sarah Oakland as dutiful girlfriend Cecily. Son "Daniel" played by Pierre Brown was well played developing from young teenager to man at war, and their characters linked by use of posted letters cross-read between the two worked very nicely. Upper class family was played by Diane Pargeter, Steve Magor, daughter by Daisy Duell, and son by Daniel Taylorson, all with suitable plumb.

Songs from Jo Anne Smith who performed with gusto got the audience singing along with printed lyrics in programme, and the ballads sung by Steve Magor were really beautiful. The Army songs sung by the solders as the were marching in the hall also worked well. 

Filmed scenes projected added nice effect and the trenches war film brought reality to the situation and considerable poignancy completed with a lovely rendition of the last post from Ivan Lake. 

An evening that made us all think left an audience respectfully quiet, though they thoroughly enjoyed it so we'll done Nunthorpe Players. 

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