A PIONEERING and poignant musical play about the First World War is being revived at The Haymarket.

Joan Littlewood’s moving play Oh What A Lovely War is the sort of work that draws attention whenever it is produced.

Luckily for Basingstoke, a new production is opening at The Haymarket theatre on October 14 and running for 10 days with Anvil Arts’ associate director Richard Williams at the helm.

Chatting about the show, Williams said: “This was one of the most important plays of the early 1960s.

“Joan Littlewood is a pioneering theatre director and wanted to do something about the First World War so she collated a mass of material from generals, letters and songs the soldiers wrote and the show is made up of a whole lot of short scenes from the war, roughly in order of the war.

“What you get is a very poignant mixture of the horrors of war but also the way that those soldiers were able to find a way through it by being ironic about it, with an incredibly cheerful collection of songs.”

There are 31 songs in the show performed by a cast of eight young actors who between them play an impressive range of instruments, including the clarinet, cello, percussion, French horn and trumpets.

“Between them they can become a little orchestra!” said Williams, who has acted in, but never directed, a production of the show.

“And there are some wonderful stories,” he added. “Like the famous Christmas of 1914 when the Germans and British started singing Christmas carols together in the trenches and met in no man’s land and swapped photographs and played football, until the generals told them to start killing each other again.

“It’s very moving and accessible to any age. I can say with certainty that the play is laughter and tears all the way through.”

The actors will perform in front of a backdrop of blown up photographs.

Williams directed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Haymarket last Christmas and will be returning to direct this year’s seasonal show, The Wind in the Willows.

He said: “I’m very pleased to be coming back to Basingstoke, I enjoy my time at The Haymarket. For me it’s the ideal kind of theatre because it’s a properly equipped theatre, but it’s not a huge barn of a place. It’s intimate.”

Tickets to see Oh What A Lovely War are priced from £17.50, with concessions available, and can be booked from the box office, on 01256 844244 or online at anvilarts.org.uk.