Chichester: Michael Morpurgo makes surprise audience appearance at first night of Private Peaceful at the festival theatre

Sitting five rows back in an aisle seat he chatted with great gentleness and kindness to some young fans who spoke to him in the audience.

Simon Reade’s adaptation of his 2003 novel for older children could not have been more timely.

Against today’s backdrop of horrific war in the Ukraine, Private Peaceful takes the audience back 100 years to the first world war and life in the trenches for two brothers - and is seen through the eyes of one of them, Tommo.

MUST READ: Phil Hewitt’s review of Private Peaceful

This adaptation loses none of the book’s intense, searing emotional majesty - nor its ability to pack one almighty surprise as the story-telling develops.

Daniel Rainford gives a breathtakingly humble portrayal of a young soldier caught up in a war of which those back home have no comprehension of its horrors.

How today’s events in Eastern Europe echo those same chilling themes.

A beautiful addition to the Chichester Festival Theatre programme made even more geographically relevant by the name of former artistic director Jonathan Church on the production company credits.

How good though, to see one of our greatest living writers gently encouraging from row E.

MUST READ: This former Chichester sniper is volunteering to fight in the Ukraine

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