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New play separates wartime fact from fiction
IN his new play Nothing Like The Wooden Horse, playwright Tom Kelly examines the horrors of war through the eyes of a grandfather and grandson.
We went along to rehearsals for the production, to see how it is shaoping up.
In the 1950s film The Wooden Horse, the plight of prisoners of war in the Second World War is made to look more like a game than the hell it actually was.
For Nothing Like The Wooden Horse, Jarrow-born author and playwright Tom Kelly has used his father's wartime tales to redress this sanitisation of the events.
The play revolves around a grandfather, Tommy, and his grandson, Wayne, sharing their experiences of how war has affected them, one in Nazi Germany the other in the present day Iraq.
As the young soldier prepares to go back to the Middle East, he learns of a war comrade's suicide, making him reassess his own attitudes to war.
"Wayne's just discovered his friend has died, and that provides the stimulus for the play," Tom explained.
Though Wayne's story is fictitious, the war experiences of the grandfather are based on recordings Tom made of his father – also called Tommy – talking about his time as a PoW from 1940 to 1945.
Mr Kelly said: "He would say to me the war was nothing like The Wooden Horse film which told the story of an oflag camp which was all terribly posh, with officers saying 'Oh, do you fancy a spot of escaping tonight?'
"My dad was in a Stalag camp, and his experience was completely different. Stalag camps were full of working-class lads, and they had to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day."
An author of more than 20 plays and musicals including I Left My Heart At Roker Park and Dan Dare: The Musical, Tom is pleased long-term collaborator Jackie Fielding will be directing the production.
He said: "I've worked with Jackie a few times, and we have trust, which is very important."
I joined them at the end of their first week of rehearsals of Nothing Like The Wooden Horse, in Dalton's Five, a small dance studio at the Customs House.
Across the floor of the studio, white tape has been laid down to denote the dimensions of the main stage at the venue, while props are ad-libbed using cardboard boxes.
Having watched far too many films over the years, my image of theatre directors is perhaps a bit warped, but this soon changes.
Far from strutting around barking commands through a megaphone, Jackie's approach is calmer and subtler, more a lightning rod for shared ideas than a didact.
She said: "My job is to bring all the different elements together. It's like a relay race.
"The writer starts off and then passes the baton to me, and I pass it to the actors and then co-ordinate the technical side.
"I'm the person who brings everything together as a whole.
"It's best when rehearsals are organic, when you see it in front of you it's very different to being on the page."
Donald McBride, 56 who plays Tommy, has been an actor for 30 years, and a long-time member of the Live Theatre Company, based in Newcastle.
He said: "I've done lots of mature characters, such as Tom Cookson in the play Tom And Catherine, which was written by Tom Kelly. I suppose I have a character face. I never get to play Hamlet."
As there are only two characters in the piece, he thinks it's essential they get to know each other and the text thoroughly before taking to the stage proper.
He said: "You can't just go on and do it. Rehearsal is a voyage of discovery.
"You have to discover what you have in your own life to inform the role you are doing.
"For example, I was the only child of relatively older parents. My father was almost of the generation of my grandad.
"I think back to New Year's Eves when we sat with a bottle of whisky. Sometimes we talked about how we felt, but mostly we said nothing.
"In this play we begin to talk about how we really feel. It can take a lifetime for two men, be they father and son, grandfather and grandson to show their feelings for each other.
"In this play we realise we don't have a lifetime, and show them for the first time."
Playing the role of Wayne is 29-year-old Michael Iverson. He said: "You need a rehearsal process for a play like this. I've never been a soldier. It's been fun for such a serious play.
"It's the most emotional part I've played, and is a meaty challenge for an actor.
"It is a tough play, but has some nice moments to it. They both have memories of war that changed them, and that's what they discover through the play."
Being terrified of any kind of public speaking, I ask him if he gets nervous about performing in front of so many people.
"If I didn't get nervous, something would be wrong. An actor has to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie," he answered.
Sitting quietly at the back of the studio watching his words slowly morph from page to stage is Tom.
He added: "It's great to watch people slip into the roles. This is a dark piece of theatre, but hopefully with the kind of humour people are used to in my plays."
nNothing Like The Wooden Horse will run from March 18 to 21, with a matinee on March 19.
Tickets cost 7.50 on the first night, and 12 thereafter (10 concessions).
For box office information, call the Customs House on 454 1234.
* The Gazette has a pair of tickets to give away for the opening night.
To be in with a chance of winning, answer this question: What decade was the film The Wooden Horse made?
Send your answer, with a daytime telephone number, to us by clicking on this link. The closing date is Friday, March 13.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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