Newcastle Theatre Royal – 22nd January 2024

Invited| Review by Stephen Stokoe

My first review of 2025 at Newcastle Theatre Royal took me through a harrowing journey of love, devastating loss and camaraderie amid the horrors of World War One, as the great grandson of Lieutenant Stephen Wraysford seeks the final resting place of some of the men who fought in the battle of the Somme. There is a warm, serenity to the set at this stage interrupted only by the titular birdsong in the sound scape. 

We are then transported back to the financially turbulent times of 1910 where a young, idealistic man is visiting a failing French textiles factory with a view to his family investing in it. Wraysford (James Esler) is captivated by the beauty of the factory owner’s wife, Isabelle (Charlie Russel) and equally impressed by her generosity of spirit embarks on a passionate, if ill-advised, affair with her. 

Isabelle’s husband, René Azaire, is as cold hearted and brutal with her as he is with the workers in his factory. Unbeknown to him, the kind-hearted Isabelle is providing food to the families who are struggling with reduced wages.

We then fast forward six years to 1916. Wraysford, now a Lieutenant is leading his men in the days before the battle of the Somme on the Western Front along the banks of the River Somme in Northern France. It is during this, the second of three acts in the play that I consider the best writing and acting of the play happens. While the first merely serves as an introduction to the love affair between Wraysford and Mme, Azaire, this second act manages to evoke the feelings of the men two years into world war one into a single act lasting no more than an hour. As an audience member, I felt the helplessness of the soldiers, the dread as ‘the big push’ drew closer, the closeness of the men, and the underlying fear that none of them would get out of this alive. This is testament to the writing skills of Sebastian Faulks, whose original novel is celebrating its 30th anniversary and of playwright Rachel Wagstaff. 

Among Wraysford’s men are some salty and colourful characters, far from home and their loved ones. Wagstaff’s script addresses these with subplots further drawing the audience in with occasionally quite traumatic results. The second act ends with the opening to the devastating battle of the Somme. British forces lost over 57,000 on that first day and not all of them at the hands of the enemy. 

The horrors of war are amplified during the scenes in the tunnels being built some 80 feet below the ground under enemy lines. The claustrophobic atmosphere achieved by designer, Richard Kent, and lighting designer Jason Taylor is quite extraordinary. This is the case for the set in general which adapts to the surroundings of the scene. While, intrinsically, it never changes, with subtle additions, lighting changes, the audience is taken through the opulence of the Azaire’s château, the expanse of the French countryside, the damp and filthy trenches along the banks of the Somme and most effectively into the narrow, dark tunnels, to great effect. The scene changes, largely carried out by the cast themselves are slick, quick and stylised and are very cleverly done. 

The third act serves to tie up the stories and fill the gaps on the action witnessed in the preceding two. It is no less moving, traumatic or heart-warming to learn the fates of the characters to whom we have been introduced. I do not mind admitting that I shed a tear or several at the end of act two and a good many more in act three.

Despite the many trigger warning posters around the theatre, Birdsong does not seek to titillate. The stories are told with a deference to the sensitivities of the time but mainly from the point of view of the individuals concerned. There are some strikingly poignant lines in the script that speak of the futility of war and social commentary of the brutality experienced by many but as I watched the tales unfold I was mainly impressed by the experience of living the life of the time through the eyes of the individuals without being bogged down by the politics, again, showing the beauty of the prose from the writers

While I have mentioned some of the main protagonists by name, this is very much an ensemble piece with most of the cast playing two or more characters. As a result, I will award my star of the show to the ensemble. An honourable mention also goes to composer, Sophie Cotton, whose evocative and haunting soundtrack enhances the experience delightfully. She cannot be credited with ‘Hold Your Hand Up, Naughty Boy’ but the inclusion and timing of this world war one song in the narrative was a stroke of musical genius. 

This Original Theatre production comes highly recommended by me and I have no doubt whatsoever that anyone watching Birdsong will be moved by it. Take your tissues, read the posters and then be transported to pre- and post- war time France where “There is nothing more than to love and be loved.” 

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