Children of the Great War, Age Exchange, Bridewell Theatre

Age Exchange, an Intergenerational Theatre Company, celebrates ‘Children of the Great War.’ The elders interact with the young, sharing their stories. It is a potent mix. They are grandchildren, nephews, daughters or sons, made all the more poignant as every word comes from authentic testimonies, letters or diaries. So that Jo the handyman, Rex and Guy Compton, Sergeant Strickland become as flesh and blood, across a near 100 year divide.

Taken from over 130 interviews, the production's simple, yet effective, presentational format uses artefacts, photographs, projections to stimulate or round off stories, evenly distributed over two halves. One of the most striking images is at the beginning as company members hold artefacts, and for a moment, become a multitude; the most profound towards the end as a cross from a bombed out Belgian church, with the Christ-figure’s arms missing, becoming a serendipitous play on the Theatre of War. It’s near century’s journey a symbol of fortitude and hope.

The elders stood justly proud at the end, while the teenagers who acted out their stories and devised movement sequences of power, imagery and strength, stood shoulder to shoulder alongside them; comrades in arms. 'Children of the Great War' is a delicately balanced production devised and directed by David Savill and Malcolm Jones, with evocative music and sound score by Eliot Lloyd Short, and atmospheric lighting by Mark Blagden. This is Reminiscence Theatre at its finest.