Details

July 1916. Albert Ingham and Alfred Longshaw are crouched in a muddy, rat-infested trench in France. These sharp and funny young soldiers from a battalion of the Manchester Pals are about to take part in one of the most savage assaults in the history of human warfare, The Battle of the Somme. Their survival is a miracle. Their company has lost 600 men. Overwhelmed by the sheer horror of the experience, neither of them dare stare extinction in the face again. So, when they are ordered to transfer to the Machine Gun Corps and return to the blood-soaked front line, they decide, for the first time in their young lives, to take their fragile destiny in their own trembling hands. But becoming a deserter, that most embarrassing and shameful sort of fighting man, takes more courage than they ever knew they had.

Cast/Performers

Phil Davis, Tom Gill, David Moorst, Amelda Brown, Phililp Cumbus, Alex Jordan, Niall McNamee, Sam Phillips, Tim Preston, Kelly Price, Ed Sayer, Freddie Watkins, Andrew Westfield, Andrew Woodall

Creatives/Company

Author: Mark Hayhurst
Producer: Chichester Festival Theatre
Director(s): Jonathan Munby, Danny McGrath (movement director), Gabrielle Dawes (casting director)
Design: Paul Wills
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Music: Alex Baranowski
Sound: Fergus O'Hare