The Bristol Old Vic and Scamp Theatre staging of the one-man play Private Peaceful, with a tour de force performance by Alexander Campbell, has reached our shores as part of the 2006 Brits Off Broadway festival. Revived last year in this touring production, which played London's West End, Private Peaceful is adapted and directed by Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, from the novel by Michael Morpurgo.
Wanting to write about the 300 British soldiers in World War I who were executed for cowardice or desertion (most of whom were suffering from shell shock), Morpurgo visited Ypres, Belgium, and came across the gravestone of a "Private Peaceful." The novel and the subsequent play, however, are fictional. Tommo Peaceful is a 17-year-old recruit who is to be executed for insubordination under fire. Awaiting his 6 a.m. firing squad, he relives the events of his life in order to make his last night go more slowly.
Theatregoers don't find out until the last few minutes of this 80-minute play that Tommo is confronting his death. Indeed, more than half the text is about his life growing up before the war. As a result, the play lacks any tension, although the account of his fears during the first German gassing of the war is gripping and upsetting.
Reade's minimalist production gives Campbell a chance to shine in a role in which he recounts his life from childhood -- his first day at school, his witnessing the accidental death of his father, his unrequited love for his classmate Molly -- on up to boot camp, which sends him into the bloody battle of Ypres. Not only does Campbell make Tommo a sympathetic character, but the actor's athleticism and youthfulness make him convincing throughout these 17 years of life.
Presented by Bristol Old Vic and Scamp Theatre as part of Brits Off Broadway
at 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St., NYC.
May 30-June 11. Tue.-Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 7 p.m.; Sun., noon and 5 p.m.
(212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com.