The Accrington Pals

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One of the best plays ever written about the First World War GUARDIAN To say that it leaves you emotionally shattered feels like an insult to those bygone souls and the horrors the faced, but quietly shattering it is, all the same DAILY TELEGRAPH A battalion of 1,000 young men raised in 1914 from volunteers in the Accrington area of East Lancashire go to war. They are destined to see their first real action on 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, still regarded as the greatest British military disaster with huge loss of life. Not many return to Accrington alive or intact. Whelans play traces these mens history through individual stories, but his special interest lies in the lives of the women left behind, battling with their own problems, deprived of their relationships with husbands and lovers, undertaking traditionally male roles, and kept in doubt by the misinformation of wartime propaganda. Their moving stories interweave in scenes that are often comic, but which reach a devastating climax as the news of the disastrous battle finally reaches them. Commentary and notes by John Davey.

Reviews

One of the best plays ever about the first world war . . . The strength of Whelan's play is that it captures . . the contradictions of the time . . . Whelan also has the natural dramatist's knack of expressing his ideas through purely theatrical means . . . For all the great poems, novels and movies produced by the first world war, nothing quite matches theatre for pulverising your emotions. * Guardian *
Funny, touching and real . . . We know the end, and the late scenes are terrifying; yet within the horror is a saving evocation of rebellion. * The Times *
This is a drama full of warmth between both women and men, yet full, too, of asperity and political skepticism . . .The Accrington Pals is a revelation. It chronicles in the round a vital piece of 20th-century history, showing the battlefield but concentrating on civilian life. It goes beyond documentary, drawing on a visionary stage vocabulary and creating individual stories that are both desolating and stirring . . . It's a wonderful play for anywhere. * Oberver *
Whelan writes with a poet's ear for colloquial turns of phrase and characterfully expressed thoughts but there's nothing sentimental about this communal portrait ... To say that it leaves you emotionally shattered almost feels like an insult to those bygone souls and the horrors they faced but quietly shattering it is, all the same. * Daily Telegraph *

Author Bio

Peter Whelan was one of the foremost playwrights of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He began his career in advertising and short film scripting before starting to write for the stage. In 1996 he was appointed an Honorary Artistic Associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His numerous plays include The Accrington Pals, A Revolutionary Marriage, The Earthly Paradise, A Russian in the Woods, Overture, Divine Right, The Herbal Bed, Shakespeare Country and The School of Night. John Davey is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at West London University, where he leads the BA Theatre Production course. As well as having taught extensively at various levels, he is an experienced theatre director.