Year 11 – The Trench
To find hope in hopeless times. ‘Tis an aspiration devoutly to be wished. Seven scenes of entombed helplessness left some thirty-odd souls no closer to their personal redemption or salvation, but buried only deeper both physically and metaphorically in the darkness of war. This was not a jolly evening; but it was a gripping one full of the passion and intensity we have come to expect from our young actors and actresses. The sense of loss was palpable – of wife and child; of friend; of a path to escape; of any sense of a future – but there was a gracefulness in the descent which allowed us nonetheless to feel a distant hope.
Year 11 have done this difficult play, The Trench, great justice – with minimal resource and an innocence of interpretation that creates if anything a greater poignancy. A century lived does little to diminish the horror of those times, and the miners must have experienced some of the most intensely wrought moments of all. Miss Mayes hinted that the performances may have been well received by the assessor… they were applauded to the tunnels’ rafters by the home audience. Many congratulations one and all on an immensely impressive rendering of this terrible tale.
