The effort of director Chris Flieller (new to the program from a sea of experience in Milwaukee) and music director Eva Thelen-Dunphy (from the community) can be seen and heard in the success of the players as they weigh in with the array of accents, emotions and characterizations, often while delivering a song. Great respect is in the air throughout this production. Strong and experienced voices are prominent. The tapestry also is of people – the cast, which works in collaboration to tell this large story.Ĭompelling moments turn around “Silent Night,” sung in multiple ways. Moments after a spoken line ends, a new emotion often arrives in the next breath in song. It includes a tapestry of storytelling with song, moving along from character to character, player to player. This is a show that holds rapt attention. The perspectives are from soldiers from the big three – England, Germany and France – with some additional accents from such places as Ireland, Scotland and Wales. At the end of each monologue, the performer speaks a name of the man and his unit. The text comes from letters, poetry and gravestones.

(On a table in the lobby, a small display includes background on the battling that includes a grim photo of perhaps an acre of human bones). The loss of friends brings a full dose of reality. The miseries of the water-logged trenches are told through individual little monologues. Through songs from trenches and sheet music and Victrolas, the tale builds around trials and tribulations. Using dramatic license, the show builds to Christmas Eve, including the optimism soldiers embraced going into what they believed would be the glories of war. Soldiers on both sides and in various places sloughed off the orders. They dress in uniforms, except when portraying a beloved aunt and the pope at the time, Benedict XV.Įarly in December 1914 in the real world, the pope suggested a truce for Christmas, but the brass said no. They sing in solo and as a group on a mostly bare stage. Program cover.Įleven performers – men and women – portray more than one character and more than one nationality with varied accents. “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” is a music-filled story running for two more performances in Prairie Theater of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Fond du Lac Campus as the theater program breathes anew. The piece is loaded with songs, poignant touches and meaning. Generations later, along came a theatrical venture that artistically distills what happened. (WFRV) – More than legend has it from World War I that front line German and Allied soldiers put down their arms on December 24 th of 1914 and shared warmth befitting Christmas Eve.

Rapt attention meaning