WITH this year marking 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War, it is poignant that Rachel Wagstaff has re-mounted her stage adaptation of a best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.

Birdsong is an intense and mesmerising story of love, courage and sacrifice documenting the horrors imposed on men during the Great War.

With war breaking out over the idyll of his former life, young Englishman Stephen Wraysford, played by George Banks, must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme, only comforted by the memory of his former love Isabelle Azaire (Carolin Stoltz) as life is destroyed around him.

The stage version begins in 1916 with Jack Firebrace, played by Peter Duncan (of Blue Peter fame), and fellow comradesmen digging tunnels in northern France. The soldiers are keeping their spirits up by singing and larking around.

After working tirelessly, Firebrace is caught nodding off while on sentry duty and is summoned for a court martial with Lieutenant Stephen Wraysford.

But Stephen is appalled by the war and is not interested in charging Firebrace. He says: “This is not a war, this is an exploration of how far men can be degraded.”

The meeting and subsequent love affair between Stephen and Isabelle is acted out in a series of flashbacks, with the explicit sex of the book tastefully interpreted on stage as a kind of passionate dance.

Victoria Spearing has invented an atmospheric set design with tunnel openings, barbed wire, ladders and a symbolic large wooden cross. A clever use of lighting creates the tunnel scenes and thunderous booming sound effects had the audience jumping out of their seats. The soldiers’ fiddle playing and songs both contributed to the sombre atmosphere of the appalling war.

The play culminates with Stephen and Firebrace being trapped underground after a German mine explosion. With Firebrace close to death, the pair talk and share experiences – Firebrace grieving for his dead son, John, and Stephen telling him of his former love for Isabelle.

Stephen finishes the war underground, trapped until rescued by Levi a German soldier. The two men from opposing sides fall into each others arms, weeping.

It is a stunning and emotional piece of theatre with strong performances from Banks, Stolz and particularly Duncan, whose portrayal of Firebrace dying in the tunnel was so intense and moving you could feel his pain.