by David Haig

6th - 15th November 2008

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Birmingham Evening Mail

Grange Players
Grange Playhouse, Walsall.

RATING: *****

It’s difficult to call an amateur production magnificent, because nobody will believe you, but Paul Viles’s team provide a riveting story of the tensions that tormented the family of Rudyard Kipling in the First World War, when the poet effectively forced his son, terrible eyesight and all, to enlist.

Ian Eaton gives a superb account of Kipling’s jingoistic patriotism, and Julie Lomas, and Joanne Billingham, as his wife and daughter, leave us in no doubt of the effect it had on them. Tomos Frater excels as his son Jack, hapless in the face of a father’s determination that his family should be represented in the trenches.

The centrepiece of David Haig’s powerful play arrives before the interval, when Jack is on the Western Front in France. This is when Robert Newton, Carl Horton and Dexter Whitehead, supported by the sounds and sight of heavy gunfire, give a tummy-turning account of the realities behind a poet’s patriotism.

But there’s more to come. When it’s all over, Robert Newton (Guardsman Bowe) turns up at the Kipling household, a shattered man with a powerfully convincing account of what trench warfare did to him - and to Jack. Then we get the bitter family recriminations, the pain of which is eased when the action moves on several years to daughter Elsie’s wedding day.
There is not a weak link. It’s excellent. It needs to be seen. It runs until Saturday.

John Slim

Grange Players
Grange Playhouse, Walsall

PERFECTLY timed for staging the days before and after Remembrance Day, this dramatic story of how the First World War affected the family of Rudyard Kipling brings out the very best in the Grange Players.

It gripped audiences from the opening scenes to the final curtain, earning thunderous applause and even cheers for the 10-strong cast - not forgetting director Paul Viles and producer Elizabeth Smith.

David Haig’s play reveals the torment surrounding Kipling’s loyalty to his country and stubborn insistence that his son, Jack, should play his part as an officer at the front, despite the teenager suffering from severe myopia which led to him twice being rejected by the navy and the army on medical grounds.

Young Jack - impressively played by Tomos Frater - eventually made it into uniform due to his father’s influence, and the play reveals the family clashes and anguish before he went to fight in France, then the heart-searching when he is reported missing, and the desperation of the final outcome.

Ian Eaton, a lookalike for author Haig, is magnificent as Kipling, and there are wonderful performances from Julie Lomas, his wife Carrie, and Joanne Billingham as their sensitive and spirited daughter, ‘Bird’, who spoke up bravely against her brother going to war with such a severe eyesight handicap.

The scene showing Irish Guardsmen Bowe (Robert Newton), Doyle (Carl Horton), McHugh (Dexter Whitehead) and Lt Kipling, in the trenches with shells bursting around them, is breathtaking.

And survivor Newton gives an extraordinary performance when, shell-shocked with his nerves shot to pieces, he arrives at the Kipling home to break the terrible news the family had dreaded.

Clever use of music and lighting, plus great sets and superb costumes, make this a production that will live long in the memory and it proves a timely reminder of the sacrifices made by fine young men, as well as questioning the wisdom of war.

It runs to Saturday night (November 15). Wear your poppies with pride!

Paul Marston