Story and songs give a vivid account of the times
Bridge of Allan St Saviour’s Church was full last Friday evening for a dramatisation commemorating the town’s involvement in WWI.
A Village Remembers took the form of a reconstruction of life in and around Bridge of Allan during the conflict in which 84 young men from the town lost their lives.
It told the story of how the town experienced the war from the point of view of those who were called on to serve at the front and the members of the civilian population.
The script had been researched and written by Catriona Duncan and the performance itself involved several members of the community who created a vivid account of the times.
Contents of newspapers of the time – the Stirling Observer and the Bridge of Allan Gazette – were read out during the performance by Sandra Rutt and Catriona Duncan.
The story was also illustrated with slides of contemporary photographs and the singing of songs sung during the war by both soldiers and civilians.
Re-enactments involving cast members dressed as soldiers on the front line, or nurses working in convalescent homes, or collecting food to send out to the troops.
There was also a representation of a concert at which soldiers performed in aid of the then convalescent hospital at the town’s Hyndwood House.
The cast included Alex Glover, Cameron Bunce, Rob Steelbrowne, Rob McGowan, Mark Evans, Robin Cameron and Charles Rutt as German and British soldiers. Beth Lamont played a nurse.
One of the audience members Richard Kilborn, of Bridge of Allan, said following the performance: “Particularly poignant were the moments when individual members of the audience read from letters from those in the trenches, some of them written by relatives of Bridge of Allan residents.
“Most of the performance took place with lights in the church dimmed. The evening of remembrance had a fitting ending with the reading out of the names of those 84 young men who died serving their country.”