Oh What A Lovely War

As a prologue to the show, entitled “Lest We Forget”, pictures of cast members along with pictures, dates and places of death of relatives who gave up their lives in the Great War were projected onto a screen making the performance feel very personal. The ensemble cast were excellent bring out all the pathos, anger and humour in Joan Littlewood’s telling of the First World War through song, dance and word. Among the musical highlights were Lesley Maclean’s flirty exhortation to take up the King’s Shilling “I’ll Make a Man of You”, Nicholas Nicol’s “Roses of Picardy” and a very moving “Keep the Home Fires Burning” by Jo Galloway. Trevor Nicol as the Sergeant Major and the male chorus as raw recruits had the audience howling with laughter at their antics in the rifle training sketch. Mention must be made of Nicholas Nicol who demonstrated the breadth of his talent playing both the jovial MC of the War Games and also the pompously righteous Sir Douglas Haig. The performance ended with a very poignant “Act of Remembrance”. To the music of Elgar’s “Nimrod” a young girl gave each of the men a poppy which they then moved with to the front of the stage and let slowly drop. As they returned to their place they turned their back on the audience and a corresponding lady turned and faced the wings. Well done The Florians for both an enjoyable and thought provoking production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.