Red Night

The First World War inspired some of the most heartbreaking poetry of the last century, and still grips the imagination of successive generations of writers. But the plays of the period have almost all disappeared. Two’s Company’s Forgotten Voices From The Great War project brings back to life plays about the War written during of soon after the conflict, from first hand experience. The first two Forgotten Voices seasons were programmes of short plays – both won critical acclaim and played to packed houses. Red Night is the final production in the series, a full length play, and the company’s debut at the multi-award winning Finborough Theatre, which celebrates its Silver Jubilee this year.

Red Night is a story of soldiers, not just officers, as in the classic Journey’s End, but privates and other ranks. These men left their homes to face appalling hardship and the everyday danger of death on the Western Front, but were not able to deaden their pain with bottles of whisky. Yet under fire or snatching brief moments of relaxation, the phlegmatic humour of men getting on with it breaks through.