Memorable and moving war-time theatre by Warwick youth group

SET against a backdrop of nationwide 1911 strikes, this production puts the children of the Gas Street Ragged School centre stage and, most particularly, Tommy Atkins, archetypal Great War cannon fodder.

Tommy (Harry Bowen), whose father is jailed for striking, has organised a school strike demanding no more beatings, proper lessons - and even pay for attending.

The play opens with a rousing rendition of Jerusalem – tongues firmly in cheek as the action unfolds to reveal that the pastures green are reserved for the rich, while the dark Satanic Mills are the preserve of the poor. Police attempt to break the school strike but can’t so, in a quite hilarious scene, the Boy Scouts are recruited.

In a wonderful slow motion, beautifully choreographed fight scene the Scouts are seriously outclassed. Tommy meets a ‘poshy’, Cynthia Fanshawe, (Mairl Ella Challen), factory owner’s daughter, wonderful in her sulky complaining. She understands poverty when Sammy Simkins’ father, the ‘night soil man’ dies. In the final scene it becomes obvious that these children will die as ‘Tommys’ on the fields of Flanders. I will never hear Land of Hope and Glory the same way again.

This reprise production from ten years ago echoes their first production, also directed by Mary King whose vision is to be lauded for the quality always on show at Playbox. The music was wonderful and the use of the children’s rhymes showed their unthinking cruelty, but mostly the clever juxtaposition of rich and poor made this a memorable piece. Wonderful.

Jane Howard