Sourcing props and costume that would look authentic was one of the hardest parts of putting the play together confessed Lucy Ogg, Head of Drama and Ria Hill, Drama Teacher. Ms Ogg said: “It’s actually been tricky sourcing the costumes. We’ve used a company in England, Stage Scene, and they have actually used some of the costumes for things like Downton Abbey, and some of the famous war films.
“We’ve sourced a lot of the costumes from UK, we’ve also borrowed them from the JADC and borrowed as much as we could to make it as authentic as possible.”
Pictured: Ria Hill, Drama Teacher and Lucy Ogg, Head of Drama.
Ms Hill explained: “We have quite a mix with our props. The boys have kindly been responsible for their own props. They have made some in class. We’ve also received a lot of help from other departments to design the set.”
The cast and crew started working on the Christmas Truce in September. In just three months, they researched the story of the Christmas truce as well as life in the trenches. They then went on to learn their lines to get into character. While some of the boys were playing British soldiers, some had the added difficulty of faking a German accent to play German soldiers.
Pictured: Some of the boys had to fake an accent to impersonate German soldiers.
“The boys have been absolutely fantastic,” Ms Ogg said. “Everybody knows the Christmas Truce, it’s such a powerful, heartwarming story and because it’s been a 100 years since the Armistice we wanted to celebrate this.”
The Christmas Truce was played in front of a couple of local schools as well as for all the students and their families. The teachers were pleased to see the audience enjoy themselves during the play but said it also aimed to educate. “It’s a verbatim play, the characters on stage are real,” Ms Ogg said.
“We’re telling the boys’ story and some of the men were only a couple years older than our boys and I think they’ve been really respectful telling that story.”
Pictured: The boys said it was hard to strike the balance between being entertaining and respectful.
Striking the balance between being respectful and entertaining was the difficulty for the boys in the play. Lysander, a Year 12 student said: ” It’s a very famous story, it’s arguably the iconic story of World War One, the most iconic moment, something that will probably never be reproduced in the same way. It’s quite hard to keep it both entertaining and respectful to the people involved, to the people who died. I think we managed to grasp that.”
George, a Year 10 student, added: “With the Germans as well, because you have to have a German accent, you don’t want to get it too comical but you want it to be believable.”
Watch Express video to learn more about Victoria College’s Christmas Truce …
Victoria College reenacts the Christmas Truce from Bailiwick Express on Vimeo.