James Haddrell takes a look at war and the theatre

BY JAMES HADDRELL

The term ‘theatre of war’ has been in use for more than 300 years.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, its first use was recorded in 1703, but while the expression originally related simply to the contained area in which a military campaign was to take place, without any kind of performative connotations, in more recent years the theatrical nature of conflict has become ever more evident.

There are many obviously dramatic elements to war – the loss of life, the destruction of family and friendship, the battle against adversity – and there are just as many plays that cover that kind of ground. Journey’s End, War Horse, Birdsong and even Shakespeare’s Henry V all take the audience right into the heart of that military ‘theatre’, into the trenches or the battlegrounds.

However, there are a handful of plays in London this season that take a slightly different view of war, finding theatrical potential in looking at war from an alternative angle.

Currently approaching the end of a successful run at Southwark Playhouse, SpitLip’s Operation Mincemeat tells the absurd but true story of an unbelievable World War II intelligence operation.

Conceived by British intelligence in order to mislead the enemy, intelligence officers dressed the corpse of a homeless man as an officer of the Royal Marines and released the body from a submarine, to be discovered off the coast of Spain.

Forged letters between two British generals were planted on the body, apparently giving access to intelligence about a planned invasion of Greece when the plan was to invade Sicily.

With a premise that sounds like a Peter Sellers movie, there’s no surprise that the company have turned the true story into a madcap, rapid-fire, comedy musical, and one that has delighted critics and audiences alike.

Remaining performances are sold-out but returns may come available if you’re lucky.

Also in South London, at the Old Vic, a new play has just opened which rejects the period of war itself to focus instead on the moments that lead up to it, and the polarising effect that impending war can have on national identity.

Bess Wohl’s Camp Siegfried is again based on truth, offering a glimpse of a summer camp on Long Island in the late 1930s, owned by an American Nazi organisation which existed to promote Nazi ideals.

Wohl’s play follows two teenagers as they embark upon a first relationship, each searching for identity and acceptance until they become dangerously consumed by the camp’s real aim.

If war has a polarising effect on national identity, it can have the opposite effect on social division, bringing together those divided in their own country by class but united in the face of a common enemy.

Also based on truth, Hugh Salmon’s Into Battle – coming to Greenwich Theatre in October – takes the same pre-war view as Wohl’s Camp Siegfried, exploring the effects of a looming conflict, but this time the location is Balliol College, the conflict is the First World War, and the key protagonists are in the throes of a fierce and bitter rivalry until war brings them together in the most tragic way.

It seems that, no matter how much we know about the conflicts that periodically consume our world, there are still hidden stories to be uncovered, and a ‘theatre of war’ – in its most theatrical sense – offers an ideal way of sharing them.

Main Pic: A scene from Camp Siegfried