Potent and powerful

10 April 2012

During the First World War, while hundreds of thousands of young men were dying in France, there were people in England who would put their ears to railway lines in a misguided, excited effort to hear the guns firing.

Their belief represented one of the many glorifying mythologies and pieces of misinformation in a conflict that some thought was the war to end all wars, and in the Accrington Pals, Peter Whelan has lovingly chronicled how one Lancashire town was first uplifted and then torn apart by such fictions.

Edward Kemp's sure-footed and superbly measured production aches with its realistic portrayal of an era when unbearable loss was balanced with a determined need for normality at home. With his own company, The Table Show, Kemp has proved himself more than capable of creating works that embody the elusive and the fantastical, yet here his determined and often humorous realism is grounded in details ranging from very authentic-looking editions of the Accrington Observer to a live pigeon.

Some might ask if theatre still needs a very traditional production about the Great War, but to dismiss it as such would be a mistake - in an age of spin and cynicism, the Accrington Pals offers movingly subtle observations on the way we can all - at some level in our lives - be victims of delusion. At its heart lies the strange, frustrated relationship between May and Tom, who is 10 years younger than her, juxtaposed with the somewhat bouncily requited relationship between the youthful Ralph and Eva.

Through the lens of both women's love, the audience sees different aspects of the agony when the protective propaganda dissolves. The evening burns several images on the mind. There is the moment when Eva - played with affecting simplicity by Katherine Kelly - walks across Jane Heather's burning set dressed as Britannia, and another, when she sculpts her lover's body in the air with her hands, knowing she will never touch his skin again.

There is also the agonising instant when Tom (Richard Glaves), rigid with emotion, throws himself at May. It is a production which evokes the epic made personal. Universally high-quality acting seals a potent theatrical experience.

Minerva Theatre, Chichester until 9 February. Box office: 01243 781312.

The Accrington Pals

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