My Boy Jack

I must first congratulate the scenic department for the excellent sets which created exactly the correct atmospheres: did the Director visit Batemans (National Trust) as it seemed so perfect for the drawing room of an Edwardian home, and as for that amazing realisation of the Trenches in the Western Front, I am not certain how you could achieve such a mood-enhancing structure in a small village hall, the team worked wonders and enhanced by effects (lighting and sound).
 As Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Barnett certainly looked like the photos, he played with style, his manner of demanding father came over well, certainly one felt that sending his son to war was indeed the most important thing, and the ‘coaching for interview’ sequence was particularly strong and showed his determination. This was a massive role with a huge amount of dialogue, and he did not once let the character slip as it worked towards the finale of loss shown. His wife Carrie (Jennie Harrison) showed the emotions well throughout the piece; as did sister ‘Bird’ in her love and friendship with ‘Jack’, played by newcomer Hanna Appleby.
 In the title role of ‘Jack’, Tom Key had an amazing transition from dominated son being coached and interviewed and ‘inserted’ into a regiment to fight for his country, to a role of caring and being responsible for his men in the trenches and looking after welfare and instructions to go over the top: we watched the development of this young man during his short life, with his feeling that he must do his duty whatever happened, a good and sustained portrayal.
 The camaraderie of the men in the trenches and the poor quality of life whilst waiting for the strike really came over well, good characterisations, and the casting was excellent with those young men: the belligerent McHugh from Josh Francis (recently seen in a play at Wymondham) and the unwilling Doyle from Al Frank, and the frightened Bowe from Paul Woodhouse: these three plus ‘Jack’ worked the relationships in style and credibility to give an intense picture of the period and situation. In the later sequence after the war when Bowe visited Batemans during the search for what happened to ‘Jack’, Paul Woodhouse gave an outstanding portrayal of one who had survived the terror, the shell shock and the dialogue delivery were exemplary, a scene to remember for the feeling and quality.
 This was a worthy play to mark this centenary, very intense theatre, perhaps a little long but that is how it is written.

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