Oh What a Lovely War

The Nonentities – Oh What A Lovely War

‘Oh What A Lovely War’ is a satirical drama which summarises and comments on the events of World War One using popular songs of the time, many of which were parodies. It is a difficult ensemble piece .to stage but it was superbly performed by this talented Company. The fifteen strong cast were dressed as Pierrots as in End of the Pier Show’s at the beginning of the play. However, with the many individual costume and character changes it was impossible to recognise the players from one scene to rapid costume and character changes in the next. Nevertheless this play is all about the message of the futility of war and the carnage from the many battles and the troops on both sides of the conflict being used as cannon fodder. The acting and singing range of the characters on stage was superb and the songs from the early nineteenth century were well known by the audience age group attending on the night (including me) who knew most of the words and sang along with actors. The statistics of the losses of the allied soldiers engaged in such battles as the Somme, Ypres, Flanders et al were shown on the backcloth and brought home to us the tremendous sacrifices incurred by both sides of the conflict. The well known Christmas cease fire by British and German troops in their trenches who met and exchanged gifts and sang together was extremely poignant. A superb all round performance and I enjoyed it very much.

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