Brummegem Pals coming to Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre
Two showbusiness friends team up to bring the story of war as seen through the eyes two Birmingham lads to the Wolverhampton stage later this month.
Brummegem Pals, written by local comedians Malcolm Stent and Don Maclean, is set in the summer of 1914 as the threat of war rumbles around Europe.
Best friends since school, Jackie Moore and Danny Arrowsmith, both 17, abandon their apprenticeships in favour of adventure and enlist in the same regiment, the 14th Royal Warwickshires, as volunteers were encouraged to do. Field Marshall Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, feared a long war, one that would drain Britain to its 'last million men.'
The army was tiny, around 200,000, compared to Germany's five million and Kitchener knew men would be more likely to volunteer if they could fight alongside their friends, so he set up the Pals Battalions. From recruitment and training, through the Battle of the Somme, Italy and back to France, the two friends experience the full horrors of war.
This goes from the squalor of the trenches, gas attacks, incompetent leadership, fear and death and is tempered only by the comradeship of the men with whom they serve and their love for their families at home.
Malcolm Stent, whose plays Go and Play Up Your Own End and A League Apart were staged around the Midlands, is a longstanding friend of Don Maclean, who has appeared in cabaret and theatre across the UK, including London Palladium seasons and Royal Command Performances.
They lead a cast of 13 in the production, which features familiar and new songs, with Stent playing Danny's father and Maclean in the role of the older Jackie.
Brummegem Pals is coming to the Grand Theatre Wolverhampton for just two days – on Tuesday, October 25, and Wednesday, October 26.
Tickets are now on sale at the Box Office, on 01902 42 92 12 or online at grandtheatre.co.uk.
