As familiar as most of us are with the word ‘war’, it still – rightly – has the power to shock. The terrible events unfolding across the world, daily beamed into our homes are tragic testimony to that and never should we become inured.
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks’ best-selling epic romance set against the horrors of trench warfare in the First World War’s battlefields of France is now more than 30 years old and remains his emotional and harrowing masterpiece.
Adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff and directed by Alastair Whatley, Birdsong reminds us how the consequences of conflict and senseless mass slaughter should never be forgotten.
It’s the story of young Englishman Stephen Wraysford who arrives in northern France in 1910 to study textile manufacturing and lodges in the family home of Amiens factory owner René Azaire. Observing the coercive control of his wife Isabelle and her rebellious acts of supporting Azaire’s underpaid workforce, Stephen falls in love with a reciprocating Isabelle leading to an illicit and passionate affair and their elopement for a happier life, which ends abruptly.
The story then moves to 1916, with Stephen as an officer in the British army leading his men over the top and underground during the Battle of the Somme as they struggle to survive and to keep alive their hopes of seeing loved ones again. For Stephen, the memory of his happiness with Isabelle and its unexplained loss both torment and sustain him, until a final reckoning later in the story.
Over three acts and three hours (with two intervals), which never drag, this depiction of a familiar but distant and terrible history unfolds to be part of our own lives. This is moving, and at times amusing, brilliant theatre.
The cast of players, some in multiple roles, are uniformly excellent as well as courageous in baring raw emotion – and explicitly more.
James Esler as Wraysford in his professional stage debut is mature and nuanced beyond his experience and Charlie Russell, a gifted comedian displaying the wider range of her talents, as Isabelle, convince as damaged and star-crossed lovers.
Max Bowden, best known for his role as Ben Mitchell in EastEnders, inhabits the laddish but sensitive tunneller, Jack Firebrace and his scenes with Tama Phethean as fellow tunneller Arthur Shaw are played with tenderness and vulnerability. For Jack, letters from home rarely bring good news and his anguish is heart-wrenching.
James Findlay’s musicality is a beautifully used asset here in his role as Brennan and the incorporation of music brings deep poignancy and encourages audience reflection on the scenes being played out before them.
It also offers some relief from the bombardment of the senses through the depictions of battle and a big part of this production’s success is how effectively sound and light have been designed. This is a truly explosively loud and smoke-filled play which emphasises the shock of battle and the terror of the trenches, tunnels and killing fields.
The Somme’s ill-conceived and disastrous big push over the top into a stark stage backdrop is difficult to watch and listen to, while the claustrophobia of the tunnels, so powerfully depicted in the novel, is superbly recreated with subtle lighting and scenery that is lowered close to the stage.
There’s a big difference between this play and the novel. In dispensing with the character of Stephen’s granddaughter, Elizabeth, Rachel Wagstaff uses Elizabeth’s now-adult son John to bring the play into the present day.
It works. Birdsong is not only about how far we can physically drive ourselves, in love and war, but also about the long view of history and the lessons humanity should learn. The fact that we clearly haven’t just adds to its power.
Birdsong plays until Saturday October 12, tickets: Birdsong | Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse theatres (everymanplayhouse.com)
Birdsong tours nationwide until February 2025.
Jonathan Caswell
