The Christmas Truce Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Rating: 
Whether
they really did play football between the trenches on Christmas Day in
1914 is uncertain, but it seems likely there was at least a bit of a
kick-around, with helmets for goalposts.
What’s
much more certain is that after two World Wars, we’ve learnt to stop
fighting the Boche. Instead, we stick to the football, on the
understanding that it’s best to let them win.
This
show is a warm, likeable confection that plays down the slaughter and
focuses on the human positives. The result is something like It Ain’t
Half Hot Mum mixed with Blackadder.
This show is a warm, likeable
confection that plays down the slaughter and focuses on the human
positives. The result is something like It Ain’t Half Hot Mum mixed with
Blackadder
Old-fashioned
though it is, children as young as six seemed to enjoy the British brew
of am-dram buffoonery and music hall nostalgia.
The
centrepiece is a performance by the play’s Warwickshire regiment; there
are Christmas-cracker gags, cross dressing and a round of Beside The
Seaside.
Erica Whyman’s production also boasts an on-stage band playing carols.
Meanwhile,
Phil Porter’s carefully researched script reminds us about life in the
trenches, revolting rations and different kinds of explosives.
The plot is perfunctory: the boys leave Blighty for Belgium and after the interval there’s a truce, with some football
The plot is perfunctory: the boys leave Blighty for Belgium and after the interval there’s a truce, with some football.
But
Porter’s play features hearty character sketches, with Sam Alexander
making a chipper young captain and Gerard Horan, a bearlike Brummie with
a walrus moustache, a favourite.
Tom
Piper’s set of rolling, frosty ground, which looks like a Paul Nash
painting, makes for a picture-postcard production that keeps the home
fires burning — for both sides — this Christmas.
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