Review: Private Peaceful, Wilton’s Music Hall ★★★★

Michael Morpurgo is an author who trusts his readers to deal with complex, messy and ambiguous situations. His book Private Peaceful exposes and grapples with a number of key complexities that added to the immense pain of World War I and is here adapted as a one-man show. Adaptor Simon Reade’s ending differs from the book which was a surprise for some audience members but is still immensely powerful and the reshaping does not lose its ability to explore the same themes. It is currently playing at the magnificent Wilton’s Music Hall as part of a wider tour.

In the early days of World War I, volunteers were encouraged to sign up in their clubs or communities and serve together. Tommo Peaceful (played here by Benjamin Cain in his professional debut) has signed up alongside his brother, Charlie. For many, this eased the military transition into service greatly. But serving alongside local people means when devastation comes, it is all the more painful as those dying in front of you are people you have grown up with.

This is one of the experiences we hear about on a night-long vigil. Each time Tommo’s watch ticks, he counts down the time he has left before 6 am. While not initially spelt out, it is clear the morning is not going to bring joy. Over the dark hours, Tommo revisits his childhood home, his love for his brothers, the local school, and Molly, whose love he shares with his brother, and his terrifying, often futile, war experience so far. This requires Benjamin Cain to enact a huge repertoire of characters. Cain is a physically and vocally talented actor and generally the people he is required to play are clearly differentiated. He is able to portray despair, affection and disdain and has deft comic timing when needed. A particularly funny moment comes at his father’s funeral, when the colonel is delivering the eulogy and Cain, as Tommo, flashes back to his dad, alive, badmouthing the colonel. It is slightly harder to tell when he is playing his brother, Charlie, as they are both young men.

We bear witness to his stark maturation as he sees unspeakable things around him. From his bounciness during playful school experiences, his lightness becomes heavier and heavier. Tommo is tipped into extreme anger as he walks past rows of faces exposed to poison gas, faces he once knew and will see no more. A particularly strong moment is when he begins with the familiar Oranges and Lemons song and ends, facing the audience with a fiercely agitated, “Here comes the chopper to chop off your head!” Cain plays this with a sharp ferocity that shows Tommo’s fear.

For this is the other key issue Morpurgo is presenting. We now know that shell shock is PTSD. But in World War I, less was understood. 306 British soldiers were, at dawn, tied to a post, blindfolded and shot by firing squad (often made up of those same peers they had enlisted with). Many of these would have suffered from what we now regard as PTSD. As well as losing their lives, this brought terrible shame as these soldiers received no medals and were left off memorial rolls. Their families were not eligible to receive a pension. This fate is what it is revealed Tommo is counting down towards.

Morpurgo wrote the book in 2003 and in 2006 the UK government issued a posthumous pardon to the 306 people that had been killed. This means the first young people reading the book were exploring ideas that were utterly topical and being debated at that very moment. The play remains an effective way to try and understand how impossible it must be to go through the horrors of war and not have your mind unravel.

Cain’s role in this is utterly central. He is on stage, alone, with a sparse set for 85 minutes and the audience was spellbound throughout. The lighting (Adam Foley) is rich and evocative of the warmth of childhood and the depth of night. The sound (Jason Barnes) is subtly done. When needed, the bell peals or the sound of gunfire are utterly plausible but it is never overstated. If the campaign for pardons for those with shell shock had not already been won, this play would be enough to have us all out picketing to change that.