This affect­ing pro­duc­tion tells the real-life sto­ry of some peo­ple caught up in the Sec­ond World War. Inter­spersed with scenes at home are scenes at the front, as the peo­ple involved write let­ters to each other.

Some­times, espe­cial­ly in the dia­logue writ­ten to link the let­ters, it is a bit flat, but the hon­est emo­tion in the let­ters hits home. I’d have pre­ferred the playwright’s scenes to have more going on in them than a lead-up to the next let­ter, and for the dia­logue to give the actors more scope. To para­phrase an exam­ple, instead of hav­ing an actor say ​“What’s the mat­ter? Why do you look so sad,” have the actor sim­ply say ​“What’s the mat­ter?” and allow the oth­er actor’s demeanour tell us that she is sad. One effec­tive scene is the Christ­mas scene that explores the nat­ur­al ten­sion between moth­er and daugh­ter-in-law. I’d like to have seen that ten­sion expressed more often through­out the play, to show the psy­cho­log­i­cal effect that the con­flict over­seas has on those left behind.

The peri­od cos­tumes are a nice touch for a Fringe show. I can’t speak for their authen­tic­i­ty, but they worked for me.

Venue 3 — ALTO Portage Place
Play Dra­ma
45 Min­utes
Parental Guid­ance
Warn­ings: Mild lan­guage, vio­lent con­tent, gun­shots, smoke or fog