Christmas Truce
One hundred years after the original ‘Christmas Truce’, we created this. The script began with extracts from diaries and poetry of 1914. The dialogue drifts back and forward between the British and German lines, and between the British and German families at home. The children all learnt their parts, and then we tossed a coin to decide whether group A were German or British – the dialogue shows the commonality of experiences. The nativity gradually happens in ‘No-man’s Land’ between the trenches. Perhaps war happens when we stop recognising our common humanity, and lose love and hope.