Epic love, epic horror on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage

SussexWorld

Sebastian Faulks’s epic tale of love and loss returns to the stage in a brand-new production marking the 30th anniversary of the international best-selling novel.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and a fantastic

00:07prospect in our theatres over the next few months. In Chichester, Brighton and Guildford,

00:11we've got Birdsong coming back to the stage for its 30th anniversary, and I'm lovely to

00:16speak to James Esler, who is Stephen in the show. And goodness, what a role. You are in

00:22love and you are amid all the horrors of the First World War. It's quite some story, isn't

00:28it? Yes, it really is. It's truly an epic story. I really go through the wringer as

00:38Stephen Raceford. But it's a real honour and a privilege to be playing such a great, detailed

00:48role. Sebastian Fowkes' original novel offers an incredible amount of detail to draw upon,

00:59and Rachel Wagstaff's adaptation has mined it for all the most poignant and beautiful

01:09moments. So it really is such a great thing to be involved in.

01:14It feels like you must be on the most tricky time rope, really, because it's the most intensely

01:19personal moments within this vastly much wider context of war, isn't it?

01:25Yeah, totally. I mean, the three acts of the play are such a journey for me and my character. We

01:35start in Amiens in France in 1910, before the First World War even came into consciousness.

01:44So there's a love story that blossoms in that first moment, which is lovely to play. And we're

01:50all in beautiful period costumes, falling in love. And then after Act One, we're suddenly

01:59in the depths of the First World War. And the whole outlook is a lot bleaker.

02:06And these two people collide again, don't they?

02:09Yes, exactly. So you have this amazing through line of a love story.

02:17Someone in my character who really just at his heart wants to be loved.

02:24But you have the backdrop of some of the worst atrocities that have been experienced, and

02:32how people on a really human level deal with those things. And I think what it does so well

02:42is tell personal stories, because it's impossible to capture one single story of the First World War.

02:52But in telling very nice, specific stories of characters going through such a thing,

03:01I think you can capture something that hopefully

03:07gives these people the respect that they deserve in remembering them.

03:11It's really lovely to speak to you. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the show again

03:1510 years or so on. Thank you very much.

03:18Thank you so much, Phil. Thank you.

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