Home Fires, Enter CIC, Auckland Castle

A SILENCE descended during Enter CIC’s musical production, Home Fires, at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, this week. Many of those present looked down respectfully, while others, like myself, were transfixed by footage being screened from the First World War. But this was not a case of a cast member forgetting their lines, it was the Ferryhill youth theatre’s final tribute to the thousands of North-East men who died in the conflict.

My eyes filled with tears when the bugler sounded the Reveille and local veterans saluted in the castle’s atmospheric chapel.

It was a poignant end to an emotional night, which had seen children, aged from toddlers to teens, portray the stories of soldiers and the loved ones they left behind during the Great War.

Through song, dance and poetry, the children explored feelings about home and the soldiers’ belief in what they were fighting for.

The grand setting of Auckland Castle added further weight to the production, with the majority of the play set in a stately home that had been converted into a hospital for injured men.

Written by Paul Flynn and directed by Andrea Flynn, it combined sorrow and humour to great effect and I was blown away by the talent of the cast. A special mention must also go to James Kalandra, Tilly Clements and the other “little soldiers” for melting our hearts.

It may have been a youth production but there was nothing amateur about this performance.

Lizzie Anderson