Lest We Forget

A very warm welcome met me on a very warm Saturday evening in Donnington. It was a pleasure to be seated on the front row, next to two lovely ladies who were clearly long established members of the group and shared their joy and pride with me, having been members for many years!

It's been a long time since I've stood for the National Anthem at the theatre, but it all fitted perfectly with the tone of the evening. A good rousing "God Save the King " was followed by an original recording of Chamberlain's declaration of war, setting the scene perfectly.

The very effective theme throughout was a lovely Grandma sitting in her chair, blanket over her knees, reminiscing about the war with her two Grandchilqren, who liatened in awe to her memories.

She really had such perfectly believable facial expressions throughout, i loved watching her and her hppy, thoughtful Grandma face throughout the performance, including the singing. Truly memorising!

She was accompanied by two boys who likewise set the scene perfectly. Their posture and tone of voice really allowed us to believe in them, two wide eyed, inquisitive boys, listening attentively to their Grandma!

The ensuing evening of entertainment took us through an amaxing rollercoaster of emotions and entertainment.

Granny and her boys kept it all together, whilst poems, video clips, and singing kept us audience totally enthralled by what was happening on stage.

There were many well known wartime songs performed throughout the evening and the audience were encouraged to join in, sing along and wave the provided union jacks. This we did with pride and gusto!

The singing was first class across all the ranges and the bright, bubbly happy faces of the 'land girls' along with the sombre uniforms of the men really contrasted well. This visual effect really got me thinking how awfully dark and sad the war years must have been, but also some joy and brightness portrayed brilliantly by the 'girls' on stage.

Act one ended with a highly amusing'Dad's Army' sketch which really got me thinking about the plight of enemy soldiers too, someone's son, brother, husband or Dad, just like ours. As well as providing a highly entertaining, well acted slant on wartime.

Act 2 continued in much the same vein with some excellent singing, acting and poetry.A lovely solo of Vera Lynn's classic "There'll be bluebirds over..' set the wartime theme perfectly, as did the rousing final rendition of Jerusalem!

Everyone singing their hearts out, waving their flags, whilst respectfully and poignantly remembering all our fallen servicemen and women.

Thank you to everyone involved for an excellent evening and particular thanks to Ian Clark who conceived and created the idea.

I know that generous funding was kindly provided by Telford and Wrekin council, what an excellent use of rsources enabling regular Little Donnington Theatre goers, along with the wider community to share in the commemoration of VE Day!

Thank you

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