A German POW, a GI bride, Newbury's wartime history, in evocative Greenham Control Tower memory play
Half-light at Greenham Control Tower, from Thursday, March 31, to Saturday, April 2. Review by DUDLEY JONES
Half-light, a new play written and directed by Andy Kempe, opens with John, a 65-year-old man sifting through the contents of his parent’s loft. He finds a cardboard box with old photos, documents and, finally, a locked diary.
This action triggers an exploration of the impact of the past on the present and how patchy our knowledge and understanding of even our own family’s history can be. The play begins in the present then shifts back to Newbury in the months leading up to, then following, VE Day.
It focuses on key moments in the life of the Hedges family, in particular, the three sisters, Eileen, Hazel and Lily.
We learn of the differing fortunes of the sisters: Eileen, a war widow, decides to offer up her child for adoption. Hazel forms a romantic friendship with Otto, a German POW incarcerated at Newbury racecourse. And Lily, who becomes a GI bride.
Their stories are skilfully interspersed with voices from the darkness who function as a kind of poetic chorus, commenting on the family drama we are watching and contextualising it in Newbury’s wartime history.
Popular songs can transport us instantly to particular moments in our lives. Here, numbers from Vera Lynn to Cilla Black are used effectively as period markers.
The final scene returns us to the present day.
John has pieced together his mother Eileen’s story, but he still wishes that he had asked more about her and his family while he had the chance. Appearing before him, she says that she chose to lock some of her memories away. We are thus reminded that though we may desire to find out more about parents’ lives, sometimes the departed may wish their secrets be buried with them.
Performed in arctic conditions in the marquee outside Greenham Control Tower, it was an evening that tested the fortitude of both actors and audience, but it was an enormously rewarding experience.
Half-light is an ambitious play. It combines different theatrical conventions and time shifts to create a moving and thought-provoking piece. It is also, like the Greenham Tower Theatre Co’s production of Bloody Wimmin last September, very much an ensemble performance.
The standard of acting was consistently high, but I must single out two performances. Much of the action revolves around Eileen played by Emma Garrett who vividly conveyed the plight of the war widow who gave up her daughter for adoption.
Andy Kempe as her son John (not content with writing and directing...) acted as a narrator and scene setter, combining the roles of 65-year-old man and an eight-year-old boy as he linked the present with the past.
