Deborah McAndrew’s An August Bank Holiday Lark is a new play, written for the World War One centenary. The title, taken from Philip Larkin’s poem MCMXIV, evokes the prevalent frivolous feeling among young men as they signed up for war in 1914, not realising that many of them were signing their own death warrants. This play draws on the emotions of the poem, filled with excitement, but with an undercurrent of solemnity as war approaches, and then begins to impact on the characters’ lives in a real way.

The story is based in a small Northern community. The staging is simple, and the characters are vibrant – the squire and his friend, Dick, who spend their evenings (and afternoons) in the Duck and Bucket, the squire’s children (Ted, Mary, and William), Mary’s sweetheart, Frank Armitage, and his mother Alice, and several other village characters. They are mill workers, involved in industry, yet steeped in folk tradition. The squire organises the yearly Rushcart festival, complete with singing and morris-dancing. This is one of the most impressive aspects of the play from a practical standpoint; each of the actors dance and sing, and some play musical instruments – the casting is outstanding.

The move from the light-hearted festivities in the first half of the play to the more sombre scenes in the second half is gradual. War is on people’s lips almost from the first line of the play, and yet it’s not really something to worry about or take seriously. Even when the young men begin to sign up, there’s only a sense of pride, and not of fear. The change is brought in through the music, cleverly transitioning from a merry wedding dance to a sober march as the boys return to the army after their brief leave.

Only one aspect of the play marred my enjoyment, and that was the slightly heavy-handed memorialising at the end. The play spoke for itself in encouraging us to remember the dead without the need for the cast to march under a banner proclaiming that remembrance.

This year there will be a lot of theatre based around the First World War centenary, but if you’re only going to see one play, I recommend An August Bank Holiday Lark for its unsentimentalised portrayal of the impact war has on real people and everyday life. ★★★★★   @BookingAround