The Trench

Oliver Lansley

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849434539
• eBook ISBN: 9781849435406
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

A new play inspired by the true story of a miner who became entombed in a tunnel during World War One. As the horror threatens to engulf him, he discovers another world beneath the mud and death. Setting off on an epic journey of salvation, the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur as he questions what's real, what's not and whether it even matters? The Trench blends Les Enfants Terribles' acclaimed brand of physical storytelling, verse, puppetry and live music from Alexander Wolfe.

Prologue

The actor playing BERT delivers the opening prologue.

In time long passed but not to be forgot
A battle raged across our fragile earth.
A generation’s youth ripped cruel away.
Both sons and fathers buried side by side.
Forced to kill or be killed in return.
To blindly fight on King and country’s whim.
A species on its own extinction’s brink.
A waste too monstrous e’er to comprehend.
The future’s youth may never understand
The hell that once descended ’pon this place.
They can but swear to honour fallen men
And pray such horrors never come again.

We hear the sound of a flare go up and the stage is bathed in red light and smoke; revealing for the first time that we are in the cross section of a stylised Trench. We hear the distant sound and flashes of guns and explosions.

‘THE LANDING’ STRING INTRODUCTION starts to play.

We reveal the CHORUS all sitting, huddled at the bottom of the Trench amongst the sandbags. They slowly emerge into the light.

CHORUS 1	Deep underneath the unplanned graves of those Whose precious lives were offered up like bait.
CHORUS 2	Far down below the thick and oily mud,
CHORUS 3	We find the men who trudge toward their fate.
CHORUS 1	They crawl upon their bellies, inch by inch.
CHORUS 3	They scrape the clay,
CHORUS 2	and breathe the stale air.
CHORUS 1	They listen out for sounds from other men,
CHORUS 3	Who seek to find them out and trap them there.
CHORUS 2	Each moment living with the heavy fact That where they lie may yet become their grave.
CHORUS 3	As earth...
CHORUS 1	...and weight
CHORUS 2	and tragic circumstance
CHORUS 1	Does heavy from above, upon them weigh.

First Verse – ‘THE LANDING ’

From inside the structure, behind gauze, BERT is lit and we see him, crawling slowly through a tiny claustrophobic space.

ANIMATION 1. The cross section of the tunnel is animated, the occasional drop of dirt falls down.

CHORUS 2	Down here we find a man,
CHORUS 3	Herbert his name.
CHORUS 1	Who half his life was spent beneath the earth.
CHORUS 2	A miner, born and bred, through father’s past.
CHORUS 1	Now finds himself beneath a field in France.
CHORUS 3	To dig out holes beneath the en’my feet
CHORUS 1	and lay the charges sent down from on high. Who deemed death from above was not enough
CHORUS 2	And seek out other ways to kill young men.

CHORUS – ‘LANDING’

BERT breaks through the gauze. The CHORUS hold up a plank which he crawls on to, they bring him out and manipulate him like a puppet in front of the audience.

The CHORUS use the planks throughout the next section.

CHORUS 1	A simple man with simple tastes is he, Who not once dreamt of shirking from this fate.
CHORUS 3	Three times he volunteered but was refused,
CHORUS 1	As Dr’s claimed his heart had not the strength To cope with all the stress that lay ahead.
CHORUS 3	But seeing men much younger than himself All shipped to foreign fields and left to die.
CHORUS 2	He felt the burden of his country’s call.
CHORUS 1	And could not rest until he played his part.
CHORUS 2	And so he persevered until the day
CHORUS 1	When stock of younger blood was running low,
CHORUS 3	And he was offered up his chance to die, to help his country deal another blow.

The CHORUS and BERT gather their lanterns and move forwards.

CHORUS 2	So off he went with noble, brave intent To serve his King and country with a smile.
CHORUS 1	But as each day of war was cruelly scratched into his consciousness like many scars,

He extinguishes his light.

CHORUS 3

His sense of life began to ebb away Fresh horrors witnessed, each and every day.

He extinguishes his light.

CHORUS 2

Eyes for eyes and teeth for teeth exchanged And from that moment forth the world had changed.

He extinguishes his light.

Only BERT’ s lantern remains lit.

CHORUS 3	His eyes will never close from what he’s seen
CHORUS 1	Nor will his ears be free from sounds that crawl Down deep inside his mind
CHORUS 2	just like the lice who burrow far beneath his rotting skin.
CHORUS 3	And refuse to be removed, through wash

The CHORUS slowly approaches BERT.

CHORUS 1	or fire
CHORUS 2	Or fumigation,
CHORUS 3	always to return.
CHORUS 2	Never will he leave this place behind.
CHORUS 1	For though his battered body lives to fight, The light of life within has been put out.
CHORUS 3	And now he lives in fear of simple sleep For when the darkness comes he can but weep.

BERT’ s light is finally extinguished. Darkness.

In the black we hear BERT’ s pickaxe, striking against the rock.

A percussive soundscape starts to build under the following as slowly the lights fade up.

CHORUS 2

A life of digging tunnels took its toll. The daily toil was back-breaking and bleak.

CHORUS MEMBER 2 joins in the beat by brushing his boots.

CHORUS 1

Our hero Herbert passed his time alone. His trudging progress measured inch by inch. His days ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction BY WRITER/CO-DIRECTOR OLIVER LANSLEY
• Introduction BY CO-DIRECTOR JAMES SEAGER
• Introduction BY COMPOSER ALEXANDER WOLFE
• Les Enfants Terribles
• Oliver Lansley
• Characters
• Chapter
• The Trench – Poem
• Prologue