Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ceri Wyn, Alyson Marks, Callum Roberts, John Risley, Joel Clarke, Robert Williamson, Hannah Thompson, Eden Kane, Olivia Coleman, Rhiannon Davies-McCabe, Grace Boundy, Toni Swords.

For the United Kingdom, the social upheaval that various cities faced with steely and grim determination as its children were taken away from the danger of daily bombardment and  death from Hitler’s onslaught during World War Two thankfully, has never had to be repeated again. For every city, its children were sent to the country to keep them safe and in Lyn Wakefield’s touchingly beautiful 80 Miles From Home the audience meets a selection of children from the most bombarded city outside of the capital and how they dealt with homesickness and being in a strange land.

Liverpool and its surrounding neighbourhoods took the full onslaught of the Luftwaffe’s payload and for the children who grew up in the second city of England, it was either face the prospect of losing life and limb in a daily running battle or head to the valleys of Wales, so far from home, so far from family and with no choice but to make the most of their lives for as long as the onslaught and the war lasted.

Lyn Wakefield’s script deals with disconcertment, the unease of being thrust into a world that was so far removed from what there were used to. This dislocation was captured superbly one of the young  female actors within the play having the tremendous opinion of not wanting to eat bacon fresh from a pig and one of the lads wanting to leave and go back to his mum despite the knowledge that he could die if he went back.

These subtle moments framed with a fresh elegance by the young actors made the play stand out; however it was the music that went alongside it hand in hand that made the piece so evocative and in the stunning Ceri Wyn as the daughter home on leave from working at Biggin Hill, the voice which carried the songs, the demeanour and handling of her position on stage with a group of young actors was excellent.

A play which showed a different side to life during World War Two and had the grace to show that not only was Britain being bombarded but the same was happening to German cities. Full of pathos, humour and the memory of stories that have been handed down by those that lived through it all, it was impossible not to enjoy the production, to laugh, to shed more than a few tears and to listen as the cast sang their heart out to songs that the brought back the images of humankind’s most destructive era.

80 Miles From Home is a rare treat.

Ian D. Hall