WHEN the First World War ended, it was sometimes called the Great War but, in the aftermath of carnage that looked senseless even at the time to many participants, there was a hope that it would be the War To End All Wars. That worked well, didn’t it?

As we hover on the precipice of European war again, it seems a powerful and poignant time to revisit Sebastian Faulk’s masterpiece, Birdsong. First published 30 years ago, this story of love, loyalty, courage, hope and survival has lost none of its power.

Indeed, for those who read it first time around, saw the earlier stage adaptation (also by Rachel Wagstaff) or remember a television version, it seems to have grown in its impact. At the final curtain of this astonishingly good production, there was that thrilling moment when the audience was gripped by silence and a shared holding of breath. Not a whoop to be heard!

Sebastian Faulks, who has been involved with the Original Theatre production over its now nearly 20 years, says this “may be the best yet.” It’s hard to argue with that.

The story of Birdsong is of a doomed love affair, between Stephen Wraysford (James Esler, hugely impressive in his professional stage debut), first sent to France in 1910 to report on a business in which his guardian is considering investing, and Isabelle (Charlie Russell) abused and neglected wife of the ruthless factory owner Rene (Sargon Yelda). It is the story of Wraysford’s war, including the carnage of the Somme, and of sapper Jack Firebrace (Max Bowden), a hard-working and courageous tunneller, who works in the terrifying and stifling hacked-out spaces below no-mans-land and the German lines.

We see the war through the eyes of the young officers – the improbably bouncy Capt Gray (Sargon Yelda again), looking forward to enjoying tea on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile when the war is over, through Wraysford’s imaginative but angry perceptions and the gloomy realism of the tunnellers, whose bonds of friendship are powerful and convincing. We can also sense the deep strength that Firebrace draws from his Christian faith.

With minimal but clever designs and brilliant lighting and sound (gunfire, explosions and through it all the quiet timelessness of the birds who still sing in the battered landscape) by the technical team, production designer Richard Kent conjures everything from a French pre-war cafe and formal home to the smoke and gas-filled tunnels, from the horror of “going over the top” to the passion of Isabelle’s bedroom.

There were people in the audience who had never read the book nor seen any previous stage or screen and others who knew the book intimately – all were enthralled and profoundly moved.

It is an epic story, acted with deep conviction and intelligence and directed with clarity and insight by Alastair Whatley. The tour continues until spring 2025.

Photographs by Pamela Raith