Wartime remembered in lockdown prompts new play
Award-winning Selsey playwright Gillian Plowman is looking forward to another outing for her latest play, One Last Adventure, a piece which drew inspiration from her late neighbour. It was first seen late last year, in between the November and the latedecember lockdowns.
“One Last Adventure was a new venture for Arts Dream Selsey and fitted the moment,” Gillian said.
“A small audience, masked and socially distanced, listened to a rehearsed reading of my radio play in December 2020, able to see the performers, absorb the warmth of the lights but feeling under no pressure to do anything more than listen. The stillness of both actors and audience reminded us of the power of words and storytelling.
“Following requests from those who missed it, Arts Dream is now reprising the play for two performance at St Peter’s Hall, Selsey on October 9 at 3pm and 7pm.”
Tickets are available from Brent Lodge Charity Bookshop, New Parade
Selsey and online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/ artsdreamselsey
“In a way, it is a celebration of the end of the journey we have all taken through Covid and lockdown and hopefully a goodbye to the pandemic and a look to the future.
“We are all looking forward to reprising our characters.”
Gillian and David Flint are playing the older couple with Ryan Moss and Elizabeth Pow playing their wartime selves. Other characters are played by Chris Nairne, Matt Hoff and Christine Beare. The play is accompanied on the piano by Sylvia Rota.
As Gillian explains: “My friend Jimmy Birchall died in March last year. In the very early days of lockdown, no one was allowed to funerals so he was alone, apart from the priest.
“He was my neighbour here in Selsey and he was one of the last surviving bomber crew pilots. He was shot down in 1944, being interned in the famous Stalag Luft III prison camp. He told me all about his experiences, and we wrote them down.”
The play is not Jimmy’s story but uses many of his words: “I said to him ‘Would you mind if I turned this into a dramatic piece?’ and he didn’t mind at all. I didn’t do it for a while because lockdown happened and coronavirus happened.
“In the play, Johnnie and Rose are a devoted couple in their nineties, living together in the time of the coronavirus. It is April 21 2020. They are in lockdown. Rose has a new smart phone and persuades Johnnie to record for posterity his wartime experience of being shot down whilst on a bombing raid over Germany and of his time in the notorious prison camp Stalag Luft III where his determination to return to his sweetheart Rose helps him survive. Lockdown begins to feel as oppressive to Johnnie as being locked up all those years ago. Suspecting that Rose may have the symptoms of coronavirus, and determined never to be separated, the rebellious pair decide to have one last adventure.
“It is based on Jimmy’s story and a lot of the words are his. He was 21 in 1944. He was in his 90s. He didn’t have Covid, but sadly he died. And I sat and watched the funeral filmed from the crematorium. It was empty. It was just him and the priest.
“I had chats and tea with Jimmy and his memories were quite remarkable. I turned on my phone to record them. I typed his memories out and then gave them to him to read to check all the spellings. He read them all the way through, and we turned it into a book for him with various photographs. He was delighted. His one son lives in Canada and is a doctor. He wanted a book for him.
“Sadly Jimmy died… and then I wrote the play. I quoted him quite a lot in the play. What he is doing in the play is that he is sitting with his wife
recording his experiences and then people come out of them. It is flashbacks coming out of the words he is saying.”