Years 3 – 6 enjoyed a theatre visit from the Quantum Theatre Company, which taught them about World War One and its one hundred year Commemoration.
The play was fast paced and took the children from the outbreak of war in 1914 through to the Armistice in 1918. They learned about the ‘Tommys’, who were either recruited or volunteered to ‘join up’. Pupils discovered that men as young as 15 years old wanted to join the services to fight for King and country.
The play showed the children how, on one single day during The Battle of the Somme, over 54,000 men died – 20,000 of them in the first hour – going ‘over the top’ of their dug out and how the battalions were told to walk slowly towards the enemy.
‘Oh What a Lovely War’ didn’t just discuss the fighting along the Western Front, it also told the story of those people who stayed at home including women who worked in munitions factories and mothers awaiting their sons’ return.
The play was full of original songs and poetry from World War 1, such as ‘The Kiss’ by Siegfried Sasson and ‘The Day’s March’ by Robert Nicholls. There were songs that many of the British population would have sung at the time. Classics such as ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, and ‘We are Fred Karno’s Army’, which depicts a rag tag band of men, poorly trained and equipped who went to the Western Front, many of whom did not return to their loved ones.
The play ended at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, or Armistice as it is known, on 11th hour of the 11th month in 1918.
