Awful chilling resonance as war drama Private Peaceful arrives on the Chichester stage

“Since when was war ever the answer to anything?” asks one of the characters.

When Private Peaceful was first announced for the Chichester stage, who could possibly ever have thought that it would have such chilling, awful resonance by the time it got here.

To say the piece is timely is understating it: it plays as a powerful attack on a war which in the second half rips apart the tough but contented rural lives it presents in the first.

Read here: Interview with Daniel Rainford from the show

And compelling it is too – after a start which takes a little getting used to.

We are on a minimal set in a rather strange world where no one is ever more than a few moments away from breaking into folk song; a strange world of multi-roling where your cane-wielding school master can suddenly become your great aunt (definitely a mistake).

But before long, you realise that so stylised an approach is surely the best way to hint at all the enormities the piece simply cannot possibly show us. Consequently, it’s a show which grows and grows intensely towards its devastating conclusion.

The night is ticking away on a countdown to execution; in flashback we see childhood become young adulthood with all its adventures and misadventures, from six of the best at school through to young love and unplanned pregnancy. In the morning, though, there will be death.

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Daniel Rainford is hugely impressive as Private Thomas “Tommo” Peaceful; Daniel Boyd is, if anything, even more so as his older brother Charlie.

Around them, the rest of the cast create a whole host of characters as youthful innocence turns to despair and destruction – all sensitively yet powerfully orchestrated by director Elle While.

For the audience on Tuesday night, there was the added bonus that author Michael Morpurgo was in the house. And how wonderful it was to see him being gently, lovingly mobbed by youngsters during the interval; and even more wonderful to see the charm, respect and warmth with which he greeted every single one of them.

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