“‘There have been quite a few theatrical productions marking the anniversary of the First World War… but perhaps none as accessible and as poignant as this.’ Colchester Gazette”
Jubilant Productions
presents
Merry It Was To Laugh There
An evocation of the First World War through poetry, diaries and music
With Christine Absalom & Tim Freeman
Sunday, October 5, 2014 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (BST)
Merry It Was To Laugh There weaves together the poetry of the First World War with images and music to evoke the atmosphere and experiences of the men fighting in the trenches and the women waiting at home. At times moving, at times funny, it is a powerfuland thought-provoking piece of theatre.
Devised by the cast, Merry It Was To Laugh There moves from the early years of the war and the poetry of the poet soldiers such as Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon to the Armistice and the poetry of the ordinary Tommies and Woodbine Willy writing about their lives in the trenches.
The poems are interspersed with diary entries which are taken from the actual diaries of Captain K C Buchanan who served throughout the war and recorded his experiences in a series of small A5 notebooks. He served gallantly rising through the ranks and ending the war as a General Brigadier He wrote in pencil and inked in the words after the war. His diaries were kindly passed to us by Ken Massow for use in the play and are now with the Imperial War Museum.
Suitable for 14+ years
Audrey Snee is a local publisher, author and journalist who established the imprint estuary publishing in 2011 and has published four titles which have had great local support: Sole Searching, by fisherman Paul Gilson; Festival of the Gargoyles, by historian Robert Hallmann; Ekco Sounds by Chris Poole and Peter C Brown; and The Tokyo Express by Una Rose. She is also the founder of the Southend Writers and Artists Network.