Testament of youth
Great War stories feature songs, drama and laughter
Review by Jim Thomson, Balfron
This week it was the turn of some of Stirlingshire’s youngsters to commemorate the centenary of the end of the Great War of 1914-18.
Balfron High School’s theatre played host to the senior pupils of the primary schools of Balfron, Killearn and Strathblane as they vividly brought to life how World War One had affected their respective villages as told at the time by newspapers such as the Observer.
We had realised that there would be singing and drama but the really amusing anecdotes acted out by the children with precision timing served as comic relief and had the audience in peals of laughter.
David and Jackie Smith’s Tapsalteerie Theatre, in partnership with The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, had only spent a short time with the cast of 80 but, working with the schools, pulled off an insight into local history of the time including – as one cheeky narrator put it – “the juicy bits”. Contemporary WW1 songs were well used in creating the atmosphere for the play.
Workers and posh society ladies brought the newspaper snippets off the pages in an entertaining and informative way. You wouldn’t expect the announcement of the first daylight saving time to be any more than dull but the portrayal of the local farm boy who resented getting up at 2am to change his clock and in any case “liked his bed” was one of the really funny sketches.
Of course, the backdrop of the First World War meant that the pupils also had to find a way of putting the horrific statistics and the names on the villages’ war memorials into context.
The hike in prices and banks’ early closures showed some of the hardships at home but even here Tapsalteerie Theatre’s multifaceted script meant that the children could put this across in a way that all age-groups could understand. The irate lady customer berating the beleaguered bank manager ended with the jibe that he would wish he had been called up if he closed his bank early again.
There was a poignant finale where the soldiers marched off to war through the audience while the well-wishers waved and then the lads returned sombrely to a tableau where the whole cast held their poppies in a flood of red light with the Last Post playing.
This was not a production where children had simply learned their scripts and addressed the audience. They clearly understood what they had learned and how they thought the war had taken its toll on our small rural communities.
There was a poignant finale where the soldiers marched off to war through the audience while wellwishers waved