Cavalry Theatre have announced the world première of Tom Stuchfield’s play Somewhere a Gunner Fires. The play marks the 100th anniversary of the ceasefire of the First World War in 1918 and is set in its final months. The production opens at King’s Head Theatre, on 9 February 2018, with previews from 6 February, and runs until 24 February.
In the final months of the First World War, as the gears of the Great War machine grind inexorably to a halt, as the snows thaw, and the troops desert – six stories reach their end. The volunteer, the girl in the blitz; the builder, the tailor, the American objector; the officer who can never live down his mistakes – survivors in a world gone mad.
Experiencing the war from home fronts and trench lines, the distances between the characters are both immense, and intimate. The connections that bind them, and the disasters that split them, supported by a host of minor characters and a relentless soundscape, emphasise how the scale of war can be simultaneously epic and highly personal.
Somewhere a Gunner Fires is based on true events. In 2014 Writer/Director Tom Stuchfield spent some time researching his family during the war. He discovered an incredible story, largely occurring on the Italian Front. Taking this piece of intimate family history and extrapolating, he has written a war story for the modern age – without judgement, and without prejudice.
