“Oh what a Lovely war” is a theatrical musical feature that was present in 1963 and latter, made into a film in 2006.
Part 1:
The original production was performed with the cast in Pierrot costumes and metal helmets due to Littlewood’s abhorrence of the color khaki and anti-war feelings. Behind them projected slides (operated by projectionist Tom Carr) showed images from the war and a moving display (what Littlewood called her “electronic newspaper” from having seen one in East Berlin on a railway bridge) across the full stage width with statistics, such as “Sept 25 . . . loss . . . British loss 8,236 men in 3 hours . . . German loss nil” and “Average life of a machine gunner under attack on the Western Front: 4 minutes”. These are figures that seem preposterous in the present day and perhaps even 10 times off what shouldn’t have been lost and could have most likely been prevented. The most responsible for the thousands of deaths had been the infamous, General Haig.
Haig was British commander on the Western Front for most of World War One. The huge casualties that his military strategy produced has made him a controversial figure.
Douglas Haig was born in Edinburgh on 19 June 1861 into a wealthy family who owned a whisky business. He studied at Oxford University and in 1884 went to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He then served as a cavalry officer for nine years, mainly in India. He later took part in the Sudan campaign (1897 – 1898) and the Boer War (1899 – 1902). In 1906, Haig went to the War Office as director of military training. His responsibilities included the organisation of a British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for deployment in the event of war with Germany. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Haig was commanding the BEF’s 1st Army Corps, whose overall commander was Sir John French. By the end of 1915, it was clear that French was ill-suited to the role, and in December Haig was appointed commander in chief in his place.
In an attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front and relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun, Haig ordered the Somme offensive, which began on 1 July 1916. The British army suffered 60,000 casualties (just under 20,000 of whom were killed) on the first day, the highest in its history, and Haig’s conduct of the battle made him one of the most controversial figures of the war. In July 1917, a new offensive – the Third Battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) resulted in further heavy casualties, but did succeed in weakening the German army and helped prepare the way for its defeat in 1918.
Haig believed that the war could only be won on the Western Front. This caused friction with Lloyd George, secretary of state for war and prime minister from December 1916 who disagreed with this strategy, supported alternative schemes and intrigued against Haig. The great German attacks of the spring of 1918 almost broke the British army, but inspired the creation of a single command of allied forces on the Western Front under the French commander Ferdinand Foch, strongly supported by Haig. Between August and November 1918 the Allied forces under Haig’s command achieved a series of victories against the German army which resulted in the end of the war.
Haig served as commander in chief of British Home Forces from 1918 until his retirement in 1921. He also helped establish the Royal British Legion and worked hard to raise funds for it. He was created an earl in 1919 and died on 28 January 1928.
Dramatic picture of soldiers charging into battle.
Not all that are responsible for the many deaths are directly affiliated with the military. Some come in the form of Ammunition companies that had profited during the wars by simply funding them. These companies had made millions from manufacturing ammunition and rifles to other sorts of equipment that could be sold in order to profit.
Wherever there is a war, look for CIA/IMF/private military war profiteers covertly funding and supporting both of the sides in order to keep the wars raging and the profits rolling in. As former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell explained: “Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the US military machine to turn.” The US had even supported Afghanistan by funding Taliban.
On June 7, Afghanistan became America’s longest-ever war, a source had reported on an ongoing investigation in-order to prove that private security companies are using American dollars to bribe the Taliban. Fueling combat and thus enhancing demand for their services. The news follows a “series of events last month that had suggested all-out collusion with the insurgents.
“The American people are paying to prop up a corrupt government that may be using our money to pay private companies to drum up business by paying the insurgents to attack our troops”, Kucinich said…. The Times interviewed a NATO official in Kabul who “believed millions of dollars were making their way to the Taliban.”
These companies cover up operations like these with almost a false presentation:
Halliburton is an example of this,
With approximately 65,000 employees, representing 140 nationalities in over 80 countries, Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the global energy industry such as weapons etc. The Company has corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Halliburton serves the upstream oil and natural gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir – from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production throughout the life of the field.
Weapons [wep–uh n]
Noun : 1. instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat,fighting, or war, as a sword, rifle, or cannon.
2. Anything used against an opponent, adversary, or victim: the deadly weapon of satire.
3.Zoology. any part or organ serving for attack or defense, as claws,horns, teeth, or stings.
Verb (used with object) : 4. To supply or equip with a weapon or weapons: To weapon aircraft with heat-seeking missiles.
- A) RIFLES: The standard rifle of the British army during World War I was the Lee-Enfield .303, a variation of a weapon that had been used by the army since 1902.
- B) BARBED WIRE : As the trench system had finally been stabilized, the utilization of the barbed wire had stretched from the coast of France all the way to the coast of Switzerland. The trenches had reached a length of over 645 kilometers. Methods to protect the trenches from the enemy were always sought out. Thus meaning, both sides looked at using barbed wire in order to slow their enemies from getting into the trenches.As the world becomes more industrialized, before World War One, the mass production of barb-wire for cattle farms had been under way. The military use of barb wire had quickly been adapted by making the barbs longer and sharper. Millions of kilometers of barbed wire were laid down by both sides. In some cases, the barbed wire in front of a trench could be up to 30 to 40 meters wide.The only time it had been safe to lay the wire had been at night-time. Work parties of soldiers would be ordered to construct or repair barbed wire in front of the trench. This was a very scary job for the soldiers. They had to be very quiet so that the enemy would not think that they were launching an attack and begin shooting at them. Special construction equipment was developed by the men to limit the noise that occurred during construction. The highlighted statement indicates what the soldiers had been going through. (“very scary job for soldiers”) is an indication that there is a dominating occurrence of ‘Fear’.)
- C) MACHINE GUNS : The Machine guns had inflicted appalling casualties on both war fronts in World War One. Men who went over-the-top in trenches stood little chance when the enemy opened up with their machine guns. Machine guns were one of the main killers in the war and accounted for many thousands of deaths.Crude machine guns had first been used in the American Civil War (1861 to 1865). However, tactics from this war to 1914 had not changed to fit in with this new weapon. Machine guns could shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition a minute and the standard military tactic of World War One was the infantry charge. Casualties were huge. Many soldiers barely got out of their trench before they were cut down.
- D) ARTILLERY : Artillery consisted of the military’s heavy firearms. As a branch of the armed forces, its purpose was to fire explosive-filled projectiles across relatively large distances. In contrast to the infantry and the cavalry, the artillery could not enter into combat on its own. By the same token, other weapons required artillery support in order to be effective in battle.
- E) POISON GAS : They were primarily used to demoralize, injure, and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally very slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This chemical warfare was a major component of the first global war and first total war of the 20th century. The killing capacity of gas was limited, with four percent of combat deaths caused by gas. Gas was unlike most other weapons of the period because it was possible to develop effective countermeasures, such as gas masks. In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished. The widespread use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition of high explosives, gave rise to an occasionally expressed view of World War I as “the chemists’ war”.
- F) AIRCRAFT: At the start of World War One, aircraft were very basic and crude. By the time World War One had ended, aircraft had become far more sophisticated differentiated into fighters, bombers and long-range bombers. The development of aircraft was stimulated by the war’s requirements, as was the way aircraft were actually used. At the start of the war in August 1914, British airmen were part of the British Army and commissioned officers had army ranks. By the end of the war in November 1918, the Royal Flying Corps no longer existed and was absorbed into the newly created Royal Air Force. This had its own command structure away from the army and introduced its own ranks.
The first recorded powered flight was in 1903 when the Wright brothers flew their aircraft. The first powered crossing of the English Channel was by Louis Blèriot in 1909. Therefore it could only be expected that in 1914 aircraft remained remarkably crude. In the autumn of 1914 a new recruit to the Royal Flying Corps had a greater chance of being killed during training than during combat. When British aircraft took off from England to fly to bases in France for the first time in the war, navigation was based on map reading while in the air and, if the lack of clouds allowed, looking out for landmarks on the ground to guide the pilots.
Initially aircraft were thought to be of little combat use. One unknown British general commented:
“The airplane is useless for the purposes of war.”
- G) TANKS : The tank had an interesting role in World War One. The tank was first used at the little known Battle of Flers. It was then used with less success at the Battle of the Somme. Though the tank was highly unreliable – as one would expect from a new machine – it did a great deal to end the horrors of trench warfare and brought back some mobility to the Western Front. The idea of the tank came from a development of farming vehicles that could cross difficult land with ease by using caterpillar tracks. However, the British army’s hierarchy was dominated by officers from the various cavalry regiments that existed. At the start of World War One, the first engagement between the British and Germans had involved cavalry near Mons. This seemed to emphasis the importance of such regiments. However, trench warfare had made the use of cavalry null and void. Cavalry engagements fought in mud proved very costly and from a military point of view, hopeless. Despite this seemingly obvious fact, senior military commanders were hostile to the use of armored vehicles, as they would have challenged the use of cavalry in the field.
Part 2:
Ideas for Stimulus:
Prisoner of War: There will be a small squadron of soldiers who have been captured and have no means of calling for help. They talk to each over as-if the next day will be their last and they open up to each over.
Pilot in a Gunship: Soldiers are in a gunship high up in the sky and use a remote control to shoot down the opposition with guilt residing as there is no counter force against them and how easy it is to kill while safely behind combat.
Sniper on a dangerous Spec-Ops mission: this involves a Marksman and a spotter. They are on a high vantage point in which looks over some enemy territory in which they’re mission is unclear to them as the militia are torturing villagers yet ‘high-command has told them to gather Intel and information, yet the spotter can’t just watch what had been happening and go home. He finds he needs to help them. The Marksman has done many operations like this before. He understands that he must try and do something to prevent higher casualties that won’t matter the the government’s officials by rests in the mind of soldiers.
Although these had all been good ideas to stem from, the group had gone from an original idea of focusing on the battle of the Somme concept. of an individual in considerable power or authority, ordering soldiers to their deaths.
Cue sheet for lights:
Start of performance
Begin with darkness
When all props are set, put up the red light only
When Josh finishes talking on the ground, dim the light down to pitch black
Dim up to white light when Josh and Eugene are sitting down beside the blocks
When Josh begins reading the letter, dim up to blue light only
When Josh finishes the letter, put up the white light only
Wait for everyone to leave the stage and dim down to black
Put up to blue when Amjad is centre stage.
Dim down blue when Amjad leaves the stage
When Eugene and Josh are on the floor, bring up the white light.
When Eugene begins his spoken word dim the light to red only
When he’s finished his spoken word, dim the light to pitch black
End of performance
Prep day :
We had come in to school at 10:15am to be briefed on what was due to happen. Soon after, we acted out our improvised scene and were given immediate feedback from our fellow peers and teachers on how we could improve our performance and acting/directing techniques. Then we all took part in group exercises in which we would be asked to somehow move to the other side of the room in the ‘wackiest’ way possible. Other instructions included “the lowest way possible to the left side of the room” etc. This ways to show how something can be executed in many different ways.
We had also focused on the matter of ‘Death’ on stage, and how it cannot be acted out initially, due to the fact that it would not look real and the audience would stop imagining that the story is actually happening and analyse the ‘corpse’ for signs of breathing or any sign of life and movement. We were instead taught how to utilize lighting techniques and subtle movement to showcase a death.
Day of Rehearsal : On the day before the performance we had brought our costumes to school and performed our scenes in front of a whole year of pupils.
I had really enjoyed using the different types of lighting used in order to change atmospheres. For instance, a red beam of light would indicate a key event, a white beam of light would indicate a normal setting in the present and a blue light meaning a spoken thought that is a monologue delivered directly towards the audience by a single character.
This is an example of the red beam being used for Josh’s character, Private Herbert Smith reading aloud a letter that would have been sent to his mother in order to reassure her of his well-being.
Costume :
My costume had consisted of my ‘Army’ cadets uniform that I had borrowed, seeing as it would have been difficult for the entire group to acquire all of the ‘World War One’ garments, —————————————————————————!
On this picture we have a good view of the attire worn on stage. As my character had a cocky, self obsessed lieutenant, he had an unbuttoned shirt and his sleeves rolled up. We had also thought it would look more war like if we had painted our faces with black paint. I had chosen to wear brown all terrain boots, seeing as we would be in the mud along the trenches of France. However, as we see with Josh’s character with the blue overalls it shows the Generals disliking of him, seeing as he has not supplied him with the correct equipment.
The General is also the only individual with body armor when he will not be anywhere near the front-line. This displays the selfish attitude of the officials during the war.
My Character, Lieutenant Rogers is very up of him,self and slightly self-obsessed. However in his spoken thought, he declares how he is actually scared of the situation that he has found himself in and that it is also visibly noticeable from the audience that he perhaps takes care of how he looks so that it distracts him from the real issues around him.
I had watched films like ‘Captain America : The winter soldier’ and ‘Fury’ in order to prepare for the role as I had needed to understand what it was like in those times.
Part 3:
What worked well?
What had worked well was that even though we had not been sure on what to do when a problem would occur, we had worked well and improvised as a team.
What didn’t work?
Using a play pistol as a prop for a gun as it makes it too unrealistic to the audience so we had decided to use an imaginary gun instead which had worked better.
What changes did you make throughout the development process that improved/focused your performance on its main driving question?
The changes that we had made had been taking away scenes as some parts of the story would derive from the main story-line so we had taken some away and it had then given us a chance to focus then on improving and advancing in other scenes.
How did the audience respond?
The audience had responded well because they had laughed at the more comedic scenes and we had all heard a healthy clap and cheer afterwards.
What would you do differently?
I would of perhaps gotten a more accurate costume for the ‘First World War’.
What did you learn?
I had learnt how efficient it is to perform a performance without a direct script with dialogue and more loosely restricted as it allowed the actors to relax and decide what and how the character would do and react to certain situations.
`The Equipment Used :
High Performance Stage Light : Lighting equipment was used to control atmosphere and mood, as said before.
Camera used – Canon EOS 60D 18.0 MP DSLR Camera – 1080p : This was used to take some of the snapshots that will help to point out where we had made our mistakes and to also record our exam.
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