Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme

This production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness, presented by Hoy Polloy, directed and designed by Steven Dawson and produced by Wayne Pearn, is a show which, as well as being brilliant in every aspect, has that something extra. 

The text has the potential to live in your memory.  The performances do as well.  It is a story of mateship and personal growth within the army.  Well-travelled territory, of course.  To inspire a war story has to be genuine, come from the heart, and have memorable characters.  Observe has all of this and more. 

This story concerns the 36th Division, which was the Ulster division, of the British Army in the Great War.  The play focuses on a lot of issues.  It portrays the harsh fate of soldiers from a small British colony.  It focuses on God, and is interesting for being a play about Protestants written by a Catholic.  It also focuses on the sense of unionism among the Northern Irish Protestants, who face the Battle of the Somme, ironically, on the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne- a very important battle for their people in the past.

The play opens with a soliloquy by Ian Rooney as Kenneth Pyper the elder.  Rooney’s delivery is sublime.  The traumatized man summons up his memories, and is compelled to go over them again and again.  The play then goes back in time to his younger self just after he has joined the army.  He is getting to know the other men in his division.  Quite a few of these men have suffered trauma.  Their plural society is unrestful and on the brink of civil war.  They are going to go and sacrifice everything for the British Army because they are unhappy on their home turf.

The group of eight men features three sets of firm friends.  John Millen and William Moore, played by Angus Brown and Tosh Greenslade, seem blustery and cocky.  George Anderson and Nat McIllwaine, played by Kevin Dee and Karl Cottee, seem pretty much the same.  Lastly Kenneth Pyper the younger, played by Dan Walls, and David Craig, played by Nicholas Brien, are friends.  This pair are more sensitive and mature.  Both seem to have gone through more emotional tests than the other four.  Because of that they are able to give more to each other and have a more genuine, truer friendship.

There is also an ex-clergyman, Christopher Roulston, played by David Passmore.  Roulston has trouble fitting in.  Then there is Martin Crawford, played by Mathew Gelsumini.  The little Crawford is green and nervous, and is ridiculed by some of the others.  He begins to cling to Roulston, but the two of them do not gel.  Crawford cannot reveal his real self, and tries to impress Roulston with immature, boastful talk.  The division head off to France.

Having faced one battle, they are not that far from the Somme.  That word strikes an ominous note for us in context of the war.  Moore and McIllwaine both break down.  As Millen and Anderson try to help them, mateship is put to the test.  Meanwhile, Crawford has become a towering figure.  He chastises Roulston, who has become delusional.  Pyper and Craig have fallen in love.  With the sound of trickling water, the drifting smoke and the subdued lighting, their first seen conversation as lovers is probably the production’s finest moment.

The set, designed by Steven Dawson and painted by Peter Pettet, and the costumes, courtesy of Warwick Militaria and Firearms and Wendy Drowley, were a very nice chromatic blend of tones of grey, brown and gold.  The audio department was perfect.  There was a beautiful selection of music played at just the right volume to create mood.  All technical aspects ran like clockwork over the cross-shaped stage and were exquisitely judged.

There is a great sense of harmony not only in the visuals but also in the technical effects.  There is the sense, for want of a better way of putting it, of nothing pushing or pulling.  Every aspect of the show, from the direction to the acting to the production, fits together perfectly.  We see many shows where a company has obviously set out with a vision of a work and put whatever interpretation on it.  But there are not so many where the creative team seem to be making a very genuine attempt to dive right down into the heart of the text, and really bring out what the playwright actually wanted.

The true nature of Northern Ireland is not much understood in Australia in my opinion, even though its conflicts are recounted in the news.  This portrayal of Ulster Protestant youth at a certain point in history, the respectful treatment of the text, the thrilling and multi-layered play in itself and the show’s absolute competence in every technical and artistic aspect, combine to make this one of the must-see shows of the year.