This Evil Thing: two and a half weeks to go… Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

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July 17th
Wonderful recording session this week with two musicians, and four singers from the Helen Chadwick Song Theatre to record music for This Evil Thing.

There is a congregation singing a hymn in chapel at one point in the play, there is a burst of ‘In An English Country Garden’ at another, and ‘I do like to be beside the sea’ when the conscientious objectors are surprised, once they’ve been shipped to France, by being given 24 hours liberty in Boulogne (to ‘think things over’ – whether they really want to carry their protest all the way to the threat of being court-martialled).
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This Evil Thing: three and a half weeks to go… Nine Wooden Crates

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July 9th
How to suggest simply but evocatively so many different locations in my play THIS EVIL THING?  A ten feet deep pit in which a C.O. is imprisoned, a Methodist chapel, a work camp outside Aberdeen, a hospital tent, a seaside pier, the House of Commons, an English country garden, a prison cell in Richmond Castle… the list goes on…
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This Evil Thing: four and a half weeks to go… A Chapel in South Yorkshire

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Sunday July 3rd

Richmond Castle

Ros Hutt, the director of THIS EVIL THING, and myself were hoping to get up to Richmond Castle in Yorkshire to visit the very cells where Bert Brocklesby and other conscientious objectors were imprisoned in 1916.

There is still graffiti on the walls of one cell, drawn by Bert himself with a piece of charcoal he smuggled in – that graffiti being a rather fine drawing of his fiancee Annie Wainwright; as well as an image of a man bearing the weight of a cross.  (The graffiti is being restored and preserved by English Heritage.) Timetables wouldn’t permit our trip however.
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This Evil Thing: five and a half weeks to go… Skylarks and Sergeants

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Sunday June 26th
Had a quick tot up today of all the characters I will portray in This Evil Thing (some with only one line to speak) and it came to 52. Phew. 52 characters in 75 minutes!

Monday June 27th
I am working with brilliant young sound designer Mark Noble on the soundscape for This Evil Thing.  Some of the 52 plus characters I will be playing will be pre-recorded – for example, prisoners who were subject to the infamous ‘No Talking’ rule: we want to record some of their ‘thoughts’, what they would have said could they have spoken.

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This Evil Thing: seven weeks to go…

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Well my insect bites have finally gone down!

One week ago I had a brilliant photographic session with the wonderful  Simon Richardson at his house outside Bedford.  We were trying to get some good images for the play I’ve written and will be performing in Edinburgh this August – THIS EVIL THING – the compelling and inspiring story of the young British men who in 1916 said no to war.

One conscientious objector in 1917, James Brightmore, had been imprisoned by the Army in a ten feet deep pit, as no cell was available at the time.  Simon didn’t have a pit in his garden (we could have dug one, I suppose) but he did know of a nearby well that had been cleaned up and might prove to be a good approximation.

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Comrades in Conscience

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This Evil ThingThanks to all who made such a success of Comrades in Conscience at the Conway Hall on May 25th, marking a hundred years since the introduction of compulsory conscription in this country.

Now I’m heads down preparing the solo version This Evil Thing which is appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe this August.

With military conscription still in force in many countries today, and prisoners of conscience still languishing in jails, the questions posed by THIS EVIL THING are as relevant and urgent as they were one hundred years ago.

The show is being directed by Rosamunde Hutt and will be on between 4th and 28th August (apart from Aug 16th and 23rd).  It starts at noon, lasts 75 minutes and is at the New Wee Theatre.

More details and the press release can be found below.

This Evil Thing Press Release

Tickets for THIS EVIL THING now on sale here.

Miichael Mears

Comrades In Conscience

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Comrades Aberdeen web.jpg

Dyce camp, Aberdeen, 1916

And so, tis done…what a very special evening at Conway Hall  – COMRADES IN CONSCIENCE – thanks to all who came, some from quite a way away – and all those who tried to but couldn’t make it…
and of course to all the wonderful performers, singers, speakers…
And great to hear laughter ringing out too at times – mainly at Bertrand Russell’s droll witticisms of course…
Those of us who are pacifists will probably never have our pacifism and beliefs put to the test in the way that those young men who were COs in WW1 were tested – the abuse, the punishments, the threat of execution… so all we can do is remember them, pay tribute to them, keep their example alive – and try to keep the freedoms alive, of thought, action, conscience, that they struggled to maintain… and anyway, in other parts of the world today, there is still conscription in many countries, and COs in those countries still face all kinds of punishments…so, still work to be done, then. Joining the Peace Pledge Union and other similar peace movements would be a start…

 

You’re too young to have a conscience

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Military Service ActThe photo is of a poster with the ominous news that conscription was now the law of the land for all men, unmarried and married, between the ages of 18 and 41. Conscientious objectors would be compelled to make their case for exemption before local tribunals, who were often prejudiced against them and deeply unsympathetic.

For example, Harold Bing, an 18 year old CO, had his claim turned down –
‘You’re too young to have a conscience!’ he was told.

Bert Brocklesby

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Bert BrocklesbyThis is a picture of Bert Brocklesby, South Yorkshire schoolteacher and Methodist preacher – one of 35 COs who were sent to France in 1916 and sentenced to death – simply for refusing to act against their consciences and take part in warfare.

They were reprieved at the last moment and given 10 years penal servitude instead. On International COs Day 2016, Bert’s granddaughter Jill Gibbon spoke movingly about Bert and the inspiration his story gives to her and all war-resisters.

Having been reading and writing about Bert and his fellow COs for the last four years, it was truly special for me meet his granddaughter. She gave me the picture of him, was displayed on the wall of Conway Hall for The Comrades in Conscience event on 25th May.