MY REAL WAR 1914-? To 31 October.

London.

MY REAL WAR 1914-?
adapted by Tricia Thorns from War Letters by Havilland Le Mesurier.

Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2) Whitehall SW1A 2DY To 31 October 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu & Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.

TICKETS: 0844 871 7632.
www.ambassadortickets.com/myrealwar (transaction fee by ‘phone and online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 October.

A voice carrying clearly from the trenches to the Trafalgar.
That Jobbing Actor (it was the title of his autobiography) John Le Mesurier became finally, and best, known as Sergeant Wilson in Home Guard sitcom Dad’s Army. This show sees Le Mesurier’s uncle, Havilland Le Mesurier (know as ‘Lem’) in the thick of World War I. Coming from the English (and Channel Islands) gentry, Lem was keen to join the army when war broke out.

Arriving at Oxford, he soon found anyone still there to be pretty rotten and his letters to his parents – increasingly to his father as times grow tougher – show initial keenness at enlistment mixed with cheerful scorn at the boredom of training. Trench life is inconvenient rather than horrific (this is the experience of an officer, not a private soldier).

His response to being wounded is little more than ‘Oops’, plus the sense of good luck a bullet passed through him leaving little more than a sore throat. His last injury is merely a cut finger; before, that is, the final assault.

Lem could easily seem a silly ass from the upper-class, but Tricia Thorne, for Two’s Company, presents this material as an extension of their remarkable rediscoveries of ‘Forgotten Voices from the Great War – short, sometimes devastating, plays from the time. Neither Thorns’ production nor Philip Desmeules’ outstandingly sustained performance ever mocks the language or attitudes of the letters.

Nor is there any attempt to examine how much surface cheerfulness is an attempt to keep the folks at home happy, or to cover personal fear or despair. That’s apt enough; this was a bright-mannered young man who remained a believer in the war and in sacrifice for his country. That’s clear from his last letter, delivered here in a quieter, more serious voice, devoid of Lem’s characteristic joviality, and in a colder light.

All the cheer is put in perspective by his statement he could die before his life has really begun. That goes with an acceptance which, in the end, is very different from the opening zest for action. These observant letters are worth hearing; Desmeules’ bright-eyed eagerness turns them into a riveting sequence.

2nd Lieutenant Havilland Le Mesurier: Philip Desmeules.
Voices: Heidi Lawry, Leo Conville, Phil Sealey, Simon Spencer-Hyde.

Director: Tricia Thorns.
Designer: Alex Marker.
Lighting/Digital imaging: Duncan Coombe.
Sound: Adrienne Quartly.

2009-10-08 00:57:13