Wonderfully written and performed one-man show combines Shakespeare with village life.

Mark Carey. Into the Breach. Photo by Giles Shenton courtesy of Mark Carey.

Into the Breach. Performed at The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 29-30 October 2024.

Review by Charles Essex.

Mark Carey gave a terrific performance in his own play, taking all roles as five main characters and several minor ones in this outstanding production.  Set in rural Devon in 1942, handyman George Crocker, who only ever left the village in 1916 to fight in WW1, wanted to be in the village pantomime.  However, the conceited and vainglorious Simon Trottley Barnes, who had muscled his way into the village drama group as director, decided on Henry V.

One of the brilliant features of the play was the way Mark, who wrote and directed it, paralleled features of Henry V.  George was initially given the part of Chorus, who invited us to imagine the king’s court and the field and battle of Agincourt.  With a simple repeated gesture or a single prop such as a hat or glass of whisky, Mark allowed us to see each character.  Using a pair of granny glasses and an elocuted voice, prim and proper spinster Gloria rehearsed as the much younger Princess of Katherine of France.

A combination of Shakespeare and Village Life. Photo by Giles Shenton courtesy of Mark Carey.

Retired Major Palmer was skilfully conjured as a drunken sot with failing memory.  Getting names confused, he gave us often hilarious malapropisms of names rather than nouns and verbs.  Meanwhile Arthur, the idiot savant with Asperger’s Syndrome, was sympathetically underplayed with gentleness as he revealed his extensive knowledge of Shakespeare.

Slowly Mark peeled away the layers to reveal George’s background.  His experiences in the trenches had remained hidden for 25 years until the play’s battle scenes and death reminded him of friends who had not survived.  George was one of many soldiers who had suppressed memories of the trauma of war and what would now be recognised as PTSD.

At the Bear Pit Theatre. Photo by Giles Shenton courtesy of Mark Carey.

Mark ingeniously intertwined script from Henry V with George’s own feelings so the words could be said by either character.  The death of the boy in Shakespeare’s play brought tears to George’s eyes as he acted on the village stage, harking back to the loss of an army friend several years later.

Although ostensibly a comedic one-man show, Into the Breach was a wonderful evocation of not only Henry V but the tragedy and effects of war cleverly told through George’s eyes.  This astute play worked on many levels and with so many conflicts going on around the world serves to highlight the dreadfully damaging effects of war on soldiers and civilians alike. 

Tickets from www.thebearpit.org.uk