The Christmas Truce

Phil Porter

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781783192144
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783197132
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

December 1914. As families across Europe gather to celebrate Christmas, a generation of young men find themselves far away from their loved ones in the trenches of the Western Front. There they face a world seemingly devoid of any peace or goodwill. But on Christmas Eve 1914, as the men of the Warwickshire Regiment shelter in their trenches, something astonishing happens. Across no-man's land they hear music. The German soldiers are singing Christmas carols; the same carols their families are listening to, hundreds of miles away in Birmingham, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. Leaving their trenches, carrying only their courage and their humanity, they go to meet their enemies; not to fight, but talk, to exchange gifts, to celebrate Christmas. And the next day, together, they play an unforgettable game of football.

PRE-SHOW

The audience arrive to a village green in Warwickshire on a hot summer morning. Birds sing and the sun beats down as locals make preparations for a summer fete. Locals put up decorations, maybe even enlisting an audience member or two into helping out. Trestle tables are erected and various people come and go, loading the tables with sandwiches, cakes and jugs of home-made lemonade. Impressive vegetables may or may not be on display. Hay bales are brought out as additional seating. A tin can alley and a coconut shy are set up. A small band of musicians take up positions and tune their instruments.

The centrepiece of this festive day is to be a game of cricket. Enthusiastic players warm up and practice their fielding. A scoreboard is brought out and a set of stumps pushed into the ground by an umpire, who then takes his position at the other end of the wicket. A scorer sits behind a table and opens his scorebook to a fresh page. The house lights dim as OLD BILL walks out to the crease. He taps his bat on the ground, flattening the pitch and calling the audience to attention. He holds his bat in front of the stumps to take guard.

OLD BILL: Middle, please, Umpire.

UMPIRE: To you, just a touch.

OLD BILL adjusts the position of his bat.

UMPIRE: That is.

OLD BILL takes up a strong, still, belligerent batting stance and awaits his first ball.

UMPIRE: Play.

SCENE ONE

The band start up and one of the women sings the opening line of the song…

SINGER: (To the tune of ‘O Little Town Of Bethlehem’)
Now apples, sweetening in the orchards
Blush with honeyed sun

Other women join in the song. And as they sing a batallion of fast bowlers arrive, unleashing imaginary balls in the direction of the batsman. After bowling they might become fielders, crouching round the batsman for a catch, or taking up a deeper position out in the auditorium…

WOMEN:

Now swallows sign the sky above

The rabbit’s reckless run

In every field the tall year’s yield

Awaits the aching plough

And every kiss, each sigh of bliss…

OLD BILL is drawn into nudging at a lifting ball just outside his off stump. The wicketkeeper takes the catch cleanly and the bowler and fielders appeal in unison. UMPIRE gives OLD BILL out.

WOMEN:

Augments each weighted bough

As the fete continues the players gather for a team photograph. Their wives and mothers might tidy their hair or clothing in preparation for the photograph…

MEN:

Now every vein in every swain

Beats out a rich tattoo

Of hope, of cheer, of sweet, warm beer;

Of coming home to you

With steadfast arms and calloused palms

From foundry, field or mine

The rhythmic thud of loyal blood…

PHOTOGRAPHER: Say cheese!

MEN: Cheese!

The PHOTOGRAPHER takes his photo.

MEN:

Marks out our heart’s design.

The singing and the cricket (though probably not the music) are interrupted by a VICAR stepping up onto a platform to speak to us all…

VICAR: Welcome, welcome all! And what marvellous weather we’re blessed with for this, our summer fete!

Applause and agreement.

VICAR: And so to our annual prize draw, with our prize this year a splendid painting of Bishopton Gateway by local artist Mr Bruce Bairnsfather. Are you with us, Mr Bairnsfather?

BRUCE: I am!

BRUCE makes his way to the stage to polite applause, takes out a ticket and reads…

BRUCE: And the winner is… Mrs Edith Kibbler!

Applause as MRS KIBBLER excitedly steps up to claim her prize, perhaps shakes hands with BRUCE.

MRS KIBBLER: Thank you, it’s lovely! I’ve never won anything before!

BRUCE and MRS KIBBLER step down, applause subsides.

VICAR: Well, the opposition are padded up and ready, so I’ll say only this: Blessed are we all to be here on this splendid day. A day on which, by enjoying life’s simplest pleasures, we give thanks for the place we’re so fortunate to call our home. ‘This other Eden’ as another Warwickshire lad once put it. ‘This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England!’

More applause and the cricket resumes. A new batsman comes to the crease and takes guard…

ALL:

This green and balmy time, replete

With promises of taste

Is seal: sign and signature

That England is embraced…

An island born, an island ris’n

Above each binding sea

This island is our golden realm…

The new batsman dispatches his first ball back over the bowler’s head. All present follow its course through the air and we hear the screeching whizz of a pipsqueak as it disappears into the distance and a blast as it finall...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Royal Shakespeare Company
• New Work at the Rsc
• Theatre at its Best
• The Royal Shakespeare Company
• Dedication
• Pre-Show