OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR. In rep to 3 September.

London

JOAN LITTLEWOOD'S Musical Entertainment
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
by Theatre Workshop, Charles Chilton, Gerry Raffles and Members of the Original Cast
Title suggested by Ted Allen

Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park In rep to 3 September 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm Mats 29, 31 August 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS 020 7486 2431
Review Timothy Ramsden 12 August

An energetic revival which points up this play's repeated use of ironic contrasts.This is a horror story about World War I and, like a good scare-flick, it keeps its monster hidden until the second half. Pre-interval there's more on war starting up than taking place, and if the War itself wasn't over by Christmas 1914, act one is.

Up till then there's been a subversively cartoon-style history of how war came about, a comic rifle drill (John Hodgkinson a superb Drill Sergeant, like John Cleese at his most manic) but little more than the first statistics on screen (computerised writing rapidly unfolding the bad news) to darken proceedings.

It's act two where the satire turns bitter. Ian Talbot's revival skilfully plays on this, and makes clear how much the play works by contrasting upper and lower echelons: millionaires from both sides shooting grouse and crowing over profits set against gassed trench-troops.

Occasionally, scenes could breathe more – 'We're here because we're here' goes for little, apart from the working-class solidarity of lorry drivers transporting wounded soldiers to hospital during their lunchtimes - official transport being for officers only.

Subversive classic as it is, Lovely War was forever fluid, a group collaboration with nightly improvisation – the published script's merely a record of one night's performance. What's always needed is the ironic play-off of official idiocy and sceptical working-class humour. John Conroy's cheekily amiable Pierrot leader sets the right tone of detached amusement and ironies repeatedly appear.

A glamorous music hall singer recruits men; then we see their bickering idiot chiefs waste them: as the only seriously-played general, the Belgian, makes clear, decisive action by Britain or France could have ended the war by Christmas 1914. The famous Christmas meeting of enemy soldiers takes place as a soldier writes for the unofficial 'Wipers Gazette' – both voices of the shop-floor warrior.

Hard to say if the comic/horror balance is right: it's the screened statistics playing against the onstage merriment that intensify the fearfulness – once you know what appalling figures are coming, their impact's easily muted. Yet, though the balance is hard to judge, Talbot's revival certainly shows why this show has classic stature.

Ensemble:
Jon Cartwright, John Conroy, Daniel Crossley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alicia Davies, Ben Goddard, John Hodgkinson, Abigail Langham, Adam Levy, Dominic Marsh, Caitlin Mottram, Tam Mutu, Audrey Palmer, Harry Peacock, Michael Sadler, Liza Sadovy, Guy Vincent

Director: Ian Talbot
Designer: Kit Surrey
Lighting: Jason Taylor
Sound: Simon Whitehorn
Musical Director: Catherine Jayes
Musical arrangements: Steven Edis
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare

2002-08-13 15:08:29