The past week has seen Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. Recently I've been to three very different, but equally memorable and thought-provoking, performances reflecting on World War I.
Canny Theatre Group - young people aged 11 to 21 - created a musical to mark the 200th anniversary of the Exchange, Sunderland. Three of them, aged 17 and 18, wrote all the words and music, and the cast ranged from 11 to 85 years. During the war the building was used as a seaman's mission. Northumberland Theatre Company's John Telfer reflected on his great grandfather's experience at Gallipoli, and the experiences of present-day soldiers. November Club were at the Lit & Phil again for Cautionary Tales from the Trenches. What started as a light-hearted hunt around the library for books to send to soldiers at the Front, suddenly became more poignant as we were taken into a small space with photographs, and the names being read out, of men connected with the Lit & Phil who had been killed during the war.