Intimate play brings to life the letters of one NB solider during WW1
Theatre New Brunswick will present the play, Somme Letters Home, as part of their TNB EXTRAS series, November 9, 2014 at the TNB Studio, 55 Whiting Road in Fredericton. This intimate, two-actor play, starring Fredericton’s Alex Donovan and Sharisse LeBrun, is based on actual correspondence between one New Brunswick soldier serving in France, and his family at home in Saint John.
“Somme Letters Home is drawn directly from the forty-five letters Pte. John Bapst Cronin wrote to his mother, brother and his sister Molly in Saint John while he served with The 49th Western Battalion During the Great War,” said Caleb Marshall, the New Brunswick playwright who adapted the letters for the stage. “These letters are artifacts, preserving a personal, military and Canadian history that we must never forget. Such a thorough first hand depiction of the soldiers experience is rivaled only by some of the Great War novels of the period.”
Somme Letters Home premiered in workshop form on September 3, 1998 as part of The Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax, NS and made its formal debut on November 11, 1999 at Young People’s Theatre, produced by George Brown College.
“The play is drawn from the real life experience of a person whose life is not often reflected in the classroom,” said Marshall. “The Cronin family’s hardships and simple pleasures are enlightening however, because from those experiences arises a strength of character that produces fierce loyalties and great tenderness.”
Somme Letters Home | Nov 9, 2014 at The TNB Studio, Fredericton
Tickets available at the door | $15 General – $10 Students |
SPACE IS LIMITED – Please call 460-1381 to reserve seating.
Cast & Creative Team
Adapted by Caleb Marshall | Ryan Griffith – Director | Alex Donovan – Pte. Cronin | Sharisse Lebrun – Molly | Sound Design – Michael Doherty | Stage Manager – Tammy Faulkner
