Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Peter Durr, Alan Gillespie, Alun Parry, Adam Byrne, Ifan James, Syephen J Higgins, Alan Bower, Eleanor Parry, Giulia Rampone, Gillian Paterson-Fox, Helen Shrimpton.
In the year that marks the 100th Anniversary of the most futile, military posturing and insane of all wars commencing, it is always worth remembering that the conflict was not fought on the grounds of justness like its successor but by people who led their countries down a path in which millions of men, women and children were killed and slaughtered. A path in which bore fruit shamed in blackness and would propagate seeds so vile that the working class of all countries who participated in, would suffer the most terrible hardships and loss.
In Britain, perhaps in other countries, especially in Europe, people tend to focus solely on the dead of their own nation before ever giving a fought to the farmhand, the butcher, the music teacher and legions of lost souls who never had a chance to become something special. If not for works of literature and cinematic releases such as Erich Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front, that may have been the case for all time.
Burjesta Theatre are no strangers in tackling such subjects, such moments in time and adding their own particular spirit of adventure into the mix and whilst they are not what many would argue to be a grand company, they give everything possible to the story and hold the attention of the audience so well that they deserve fully every applause and smiling faces greeting them going. Under Julian Bond and Mikyla Jane Durkan they do what many wouldn’t dare, they make people think about the true tragedy that befits such times as austerity, depression, acts of violence, war, famine and disease, that it is the poorest in society who gets to go over the top first and with more people suffering under monetary tyranny than the dark days of the Great Depression; there is no shortage of ready squadrons to die in the name of the nation.
The back room of the Casa on Hope Street has had many nights in which this message has been hammered home yet still the knocks, the hammering down continues and the whirring cogs of imagination in the audience didn’t have to wander too far to come to the conclusion during the performance, that how long before the so called great and the good ask for a sacrifice too far. This was bought home when the poignancy of why the war started was raised. It is such a silly thing, for a field in Germany to take offence at the slight dig offered by a Russian River and yet that’s what it boils down to, the same stretch of land, divided up into who can what about another person. It is a message that the entire cast offered in great abundance.
All Quiet On The Western Front is a play which brings out the very best in any type of theatre company wishing to perform it on the stage, the starkness of the setting is not a hindrance as the blood soaked trenches and mud splattered faces are well immersed into the national conscious enough to underplay it with it physical acting and for that Burjesta Theatre have never failed in.
A poignant piece of theatre and upholding the fine tradition of the company!
Ian D. Hall