CHILDREN from local schools Merton Junior, Preston Candover CE Primary and Saxon Wood Special School came together at The Anvil last night for the culmination of a unique Great War project.

The project, commissioned by Anvil Arts, led the children – aided by a number of professional musicians and arts practitioners - through workshops to an eventual performance in front of their family and friends of a wonderful programme of pre-existing and original material.

The famous literature and poetry of World War One, including Wilfred Owen’s Anthem For Doomed Youth, John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields and Rudyard Kipling’s My Boy Jack, meshed beautifully with words and music which the children had written.

Among many impressive sequences, they performed Owen’s terrifically onomatopoeic phrase “stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle” absolutely brilliantly.

Groups took turns to take to the centre of the stage, assisted by actor Colin Brown, as they led us through many elements of the terrible conflict.

Basingstoke Gazette:

A young pianist in a wheelchair helped out for the opening number ‘Can you feel the heartbeat?’ during which the children of Saxon Wood approached other children to touch the poppies on their chests.

The contributions of the young people involved touched on life in the trenches, the war’s barbarity, the hellish conditions and the dreadful slaughter before moving through the healing process to end with a hopeful number featuring all of the children, encouraging us to “join the stream of life”.

It was incredibly impressive that every single child knew their words off by heart and also managed to participate in a lot of choreographed dramatic sequences without any trouble at all.

And the end result of their endeavours was so, so moving throughout much of the duration of the event.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Seeing their bodies litter the performance space as they recreated the frontline / going over the top was hugely effective, their youth speaking volumes about the sacrifices of generations past.

Another memorable sequence featured a Twitter inspired story of a young soldier, David Tindal. Devised by Mark Gorton, it was read aloud by the children.

The children of Saxon Wood were involved in several affecting sequences. Watching these young people, who must undergo such struggles in their daily lives, whirling white birds around the auditorium, using hand chimes or singing their lines loudly into the microphones, was so inspiring.

Basingstoke Gazette:

The delighted expressions on their faces spoke volumes about their joy in participation, and their awareness of the appreciative audience’s response to their efforts.

Basingstoke Gazette:

The professional team: Ken Aiso, Rebekah Bernstein, Buster Birch, Emily Blows, Colin Brown, Laura Jurd, Howard Moody, Emma Payne, Adrian Zolotuhin.