A lot of coverage is being given this year to the centenary of the First World War. Quite rightly too – every war memorial in the country bears the words “Lest We Forget”. But now, within the last year or so the last “fighting Tommy” has died and there is nobody left to remember. There is a danger that the war is relegated to history alongside the battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar. This would be a pity. The First World War changed everything and we are still feeling the repercussions today. It provided the first step in the emancipation of women and the beginning of the end of the British Empire and our dominance, politically and industrially, in the world. In victory we arbitrarily chopped up Europe and the Middle East leading to unrest which is much more significant now than it was then.
The First World War is a subject that has provided a rich vein of material for artists of all types over the years. Playwrights have always contributed their fair share. Most of these plays provide an insight into life in the trenches and the impact the war had on the lives of the soldiers involved as we saw earlier this year with the excellent Birdsong. But war affects everyone; nobody is untouched by it or its aftermath.
Deborah McAndrew’s An August Bank Holiday Lark takes its inspiration and title from Philip Larkin’s poem MCMXIV. The story takes place in a Lancashire cotton-mill village while the men prepare for the Wakes Week Rushcart Festival in the middle of August 1914. They are more concerned with the ratatat tapping of their clogs on the cobbles than with impending ratatat tapping of the machine guns being prepared across the channel. The looming war is seen as not much different from Wakes Week, a bit of a lark. Sure, people will get hurt but it’ll all be over by Christmas.
Apart from the music and dancing, of which there is lots, the main story-line of An August Bank Holiday Lark concerns the brightest and best dancer, Frank, as he woos the boss’s daughter Mary. Needless to say Mary’s father doesn’t consider young Frank worthy of his daughter’s hand so, hoping to impress, Frank, along with Mary’s two brothers, takes the King’s Shilling and joins up.
For all the men’s posturing and important rushcart-building it is the women who bear most of the burdens. Until the truth dawns they are as concerned about putting food on tables and with the dangers up ’t mill as they are with the altercations in Gallipoli – where ever that is. This was a time when people rarely left their village. Let alone their county.
Gradually, as the telegrams arrive, the women of the town realise that it wasn’t a bit of a lark at all and recognize what they knew anyway that there are things more important than rushcarts and clog-dancing.
Northern Broadsides’ production of An August Bank Holiday Lark is simply but nicely done. There is no set to speak of but the costumes, music and lighting are excellent. The rushcart, which is built before our very eyes gives an insight into customs the origins of which date back into the mists of more primitive times and the dancing, of which there is possibly a tiny bit too much, is rousing and entertaining. All the performances are excellent and although it would be unfair to pick out individuals it must be said that it was the women who carried of the play much as they did the First World War and its consequences. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted
