Mabh Savage was in the audience at the New Headingley Club last Friday 21 March. She posted the following review on her blog at http://bit.ly/1iDajD3 which we reproduce with her permission:
There is an odd camaraderie at New Headingley Club, between Leeds Rhinos rugby fans about to head off to cheer on their team, and LitFest fans here to listen in contrasting silence to Stories from the War Hospital, a performance and introduction to the book of the same name.
There is an odd camaraderie at New Headingley Club, between Leeds Rhinos rugby fans about to head off to cheer on their team, and LitFest fans here to listen in contrasting silence to Stories from the War Hospital, a performance and introduction to the book of the same name.
Headingley LitFest 2014 is sub-titled Surviving, and Richard Wilcocks' painstakingly researched
volume pays tribute not only to some of those who survived the First World War,
but those of the 2nd Northern General Hospital at Beckett Park, Leeds, who
tirelessly worked to save and rebuild the lives of those back from the front in
a bad condition.
Richard introduces the book, a collection of true stories of
sick and wounded soldiers, nurses, doctors and volunteers. There are clearly
members of the audience who are very invested in this publication, as murmurs
and even shout-outs about military acronyms and familiar names mingle with this
introductory piece. One of the audience is introduced as an interviewee for the
book. There is a sense of pomp and
circumstance that belies the plain and basic trim of the wooden block stage and
identical folding chairs; this volume has evidently been a labour of love and
great effort, and the people involved are proud to see it come to fruition.
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| Contact headingleyhospital@gmail.com for your copy |
The performance itself is brought to us by The Vedettes, who
are Richard, Katharina Arnold, Charlotte Blackburn and Hannah Robinson. The
three women are in period VAD nurse's uniforms, although the wide range of roles
they each take steps far outside this costume choice. The performance focuses
on three of the stories from the book: the stories of Robert Bass, Dorothy
Wilkinson and Margaret Anna Newbould. Imagine snapshots of the period brought
to life for a brief moment; there is this sense that we are looking through a
lens into the past, into tiny fragments of these peoples' lives. I think this
is accentuated by the fact that these are
completely true stories; the events have been retold by descendants of the
protagonists; the dialogue is from the retelling of those closest to the
events.
Katharina introduces the performance with a piece on
acoustic guitar. The guitar is then used as a break to indicate the beginning
of each new story. Music of the time is also included as part of the stories,
again creating this snap shot feel; people standing together and singing,
people at Christmas sitting together carolling; all little snippets of everyday
life that hammer home how real, how
horrifyingly accurate the
descriptions of the sickness, the suffering, the wounds and the wailing really
are. At one point Hannah is rocking backwards and forwards screaming, and I
shiver to think of how much worse the volunteers at Beckett Park must have had
it; not just one screaming soldier, but hundreds, many with no hope except the
consolation that kind words and the promise of a letter home can give.
We learn of Robert Bass, the soldier who survived wounds to
the leg and shoulder, only to have a shell mutilate his jaw, teeth and face.
The vivid imagery of this - severed lip, smashed jaw, destroyed teeth- is hard
hitting and reminds us not only of the catch-all phrase 'horror of war' but
that conflict is not the large and
faceless concept many of us presume it to be, but a visceral process that
obliterates individuals' hopes, dreams and souls; in short, everything that
makes them human. My friend Jonathan notes that often the numbers for 'Dead
and Wounded' are lumped together, as these are all people who can no longer be
fed into the war machine; in short, a wounded man is as useful to the military
as a dead man.
Thankfully, this performance, and in turn, the book it comes
from, shows us that lives can be restored, and that the de-humanising process
is not irreversible in every case. Robert undergoes revolutionary maxillofacial surgery at Beckett's Park, and indeed finds something of a happy ending...
Well, I won't spoil the story utterly, go read the book!
Charlotte plays the role of Nurse Margaret Anna Newbould, a
nurse at Beckett Park who became Acting Matron of the Formosa, a hospital ship
that carried casualties from the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Vedettes create a gut
wrenching image of the sweat, sickliness and overall sordidness of life on
board a ship overfull of the dead and dying. You can feel the heat and the
hopelessness. Margaret was much decorated for her service, and one can't help
but feel that a medal is the least someone deserves for being one of the only
bright lights in these poor souls' existence...
Katharina and Hannah play the couple Dorothy Wilkinson and
Clifford Pickles: sweethearts torn apart by war, and then damaged further by
Clifford's onset of shell shock. This for me is the most heart wrenching story;
psychological trauma is an enemy one cannot fight with bullets and aggression,
and of course in the time of the First World War, little was known about how to
treat it. Both performances here are strong, human and touching.
As the show finishes, I'm left with a conflicting set of
emotions; once more I am shown the grim reality of war, yet to see these close
ups of the people affected most strongly by it is something of a privilege. I
feel like I have been invited to see behind the scenes of a great play, and am
not disappointed by the backdrops and actors. Richard points out, that out of
nearly 500 staff that would certainly have worked in the
War Hospital, we know of only a very few in detail. Yet it gives me hope that
these stories are now recorded for future generations; not only so we don't
forget the shocking reality of the effects of war, but so we can remember how
great, how resilient the human spirit is, and how there truly are those who
work tirelessly for the good of others.
UPDATE - website for published book Stories from the War Hospital is at www.firstworldwarhospital.co.uk
UPDATE - website for published book Stories from the War Hospital is at www.firstworldwarhospital.co.uk
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Stories from the War Hospital please email
headingleyhospital@gmail.com .
