It began with a rousing rendition of ’It’s a long way to Tipperary’ and set the scene for the two evening performances at the Savoy Theatre.

An insight into the life of Monmouth residents before, during and after the events of the First World War was captured this week with some pathos by writer and director David Evans who drew some of his inspiration from articles in the Beacon.

Presented ’radio style’, it still worked visually as the audience was drawn into the characters created by the seven talented people, using a range of dialects to create 23 characters who evoked the feelings of excitement, relief and sadness as events of the war unfolded.

From the very first announcement of the declaration of war, with the voice of Captian David Bell as David Lloyd George, and the witnesses of the march from Castle House by No 1 Siege Company of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers the scene was set to see Monmouth ’carrying on as normal’.

The siege company were initially deployed to the south of Ireland to build coastal defences but did eventually serve on the Western Front and elsewhere, but as peace celebrations in 1919 saw a march of returning soldiers, not all the men returned.

There were moments of sadness mixed with fun in the performance, but it worked, and worked well!