For one night only, a group of singers and musicians gathered in Queen’s Hall to honour the fallen of the First World War. From this rousing chorus of talented performers, the packed house was treated to Far, Far from Ypres, a labour of love that left everyone with the profound sense of loss associated with the so-called ‘war to end all wars’.
Through two hours of song, poetry and prose readings, Far, Far From Ypres told the story of the Scottish war effort through the eyes of fictional, prototypical soldier ‘Jimmy MacDonald’. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Iain Anderson was on hand for narration duties, providing the links between the songs with appropriate gravitas and a bottle of Merlot kept to hand. As good as Anderson was (and he was very good), the real stars were the songs. While the show featured a broad range of music, by far the most fascinating were the trench and marching songs. These songs, sung to keep up soldiers’ spirits, provided a more vivid picture of their experiences than almost anything else. There was more bitterness directed towards their own commanders than the enemy, with lyrics that cheerfully directed the German guns in the direction of senior officers. The performers conveyed all the emotion of the songs appropriately, either with sombre respect or a warm sense of fun. These fun moments were presented as inspiringly convivial experiences, where the audience joined the performers in choruses that echoed into the deep spaces of the hall.
The show was long but never dragged, and there’s really only one complaint to make: the video projection showed some of the shocking and stirring images from the war, but the quality of the performance meant that it would have been no worse if they hadn’t bothered. The fact that the projection was not particularly well-presented didn’t help. The solemnity of the opening images was ruined somewhat when an unexpected hiccup caused the Windows login page to be displayed on the enormous screen for all to see. Over the course of the show, the mouse cursor popped up four more times.
Jimmy MacDonald’s story did not end in the trenches. As Anderson sombrely informed us, he made it through four long years of hell, of sleeping in filth, dodging bullets, artillery and poisonous gas. Jimmy survived the horror of the Great War to come home, where like so many others, he died after contracting the post-war Spanish flu pandemic. At the final moment of the show before the last musical numbers, it was a potent reminder that tragedy has no respect for historical landmarks: it has always gone before, and shall always continue after. A standing ovation raised the roof of the Queen’s Hall for several minutes after the show had finished. It was a stirring end to a night honouring a terrible tragedy, one that left the entire audience moved and sombre, but strangely elated.
