Review: Their Finest Hour, Waterloo East Theatre

Review: Their Finest Hour, Waterloo East Theatre

Summary

Rating

60

Good

An interesting and moving account of RAF involvement in WWII, using verbatim narratives, contemporary songs and poetry.

Waterloo East Theatre is a good venue for a WWII play.  It seems like you are sitting in a giant, damp Anderson Shelter with distant rumbling which could easily be imagined as aircraft approaching (or departing).  Add to that some early 1940’s songs, a stage with an old radio, Bakelight telephone and maps of Europe over the wall and we’re all set.

Their Finest Hour is not a facts and figures history lesson, nor does it set out to be a ‘gung ho’ adventure. Even so, it can be quite tense at times, as it describes the events experienced by people who served in the RAF during this period of history, in their own words.  Writer, Steve Darlow, has interviewed a ‘hundred or more veterans’ over the years and has used these transcripts to bring the stories to the attention of the public through books and now on stage.  Voiced by actors taking on the different personas, interspersed with songs and poetry of the time, it works well. 

The show starts with the funeral of a veteran, where his grandchildren express regret that they did not manage to speak to him about his WWII experiences in any depth.  Instead, they find documents, pictures and objects and use these to act out the stories, helped along by narrator Jamie Dunlop (Patrick Lock) who is based on a real-life Bomber Command pilot.  Events in which the RAF played a part are described by pilots, crews, ground staff, nursing staff and civilians, from the Dunkirk evacuations through the Battle of Britain, various bombing campaigns, the D-Day landings and more.  There are descriptions of a gamut of emotions; the joy and sense of freedom when flying, the terror of being shot down, excitement and anticipation before a mission, grief at the loss of colleagues. These are made all the more poignant by the matter of fact way in which the accounts have been captured and retold.

With eight cast members playing about 100 characters between them, plus all of the props, it does sometimes look a bit crowded and ‘busy’ on the small stage.  Hats off to the choreographer for the smooth manoeuvres in which nobody gets clobbered by a chair or tripped up.  The black funeral clothes form a good base upon which to add hats, jackets, scarves and the like for the various changes of character.  These are all hanging on a rail at the back of the stage or jammed into boxes, and a quick look indicates just how many seamless transitions there are.  The same is not true of regional accents, some of which are pretty dire and detract from the dialogue. Perhaps it would have been better to forgo some of the accents in this case.

Singers, Alex Cosgriff and Tabitha Baines, deserve a shout out for their performance of the songs, and the background music complements what is happening on stage very well.  Apart from Peter Pearson, who is on hand to cover the older statesmen and senior officers, the remainder of the cast serve as a reminder of just how young the men and women on active service were. 

The play ends with a reminder of how some of the poets and contributors died, and a moving letter written by our narrator, pilot Jamie Dunlop, which is opened in the event of his death from a crash landing in Norfolk.  In it, he hopes that the men and women who lived through WWII, their actions and sacrifices, are not forgotten.  This production goes some way towards ensuring that, in a very interesting format which may appeal to a wider audience than books alone.

---

Written by: Steve Darlow
Directed by: Joe Maylan
Choreography by: Auriole Wells
Produced by: Steve Darlow and Auriole Wells

Their Finest Hour plays at Waterloo East Theatre until 26 March. Further information and bookings can be found here.