With the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War being commemorated this year, the staging of Birdsong at the Devonshire Park Theatre is timely.
The impressive cast deliver the romance and tragedy in Sebastian Faulks’s slow-burning story of Stephen Wraysford’s love affair and trench slaughter crisply, with impact and moments of searing emotion.
The spectre of a shattered cross and a trench just one step from oblivion, all in silhouette as a backdrop, powerfully underscore Victoria Spearing’s spare but imposing set.
Flashbacks, clever lighting and powerful sound effects combine to evoke the love and horror of the story, the terrifying fear of men being crushed by the tunnels they were trying to dig.
Inevitably the finest moments of George Banks as Wraysford come in the final scene, as he and Peter Duncan, giving a standout performance as the grief-stricken Jack Firebrace, face the prospect of being buried alive.
The romantic scenes are subtly handled, especially when the abused, frustrated, hesitant yet vulnerable Isabelle, movingly played by Carolin Stoltz, yields to Wrayford’s passionate advances before the reality of war overtakes everyone.
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