Fife group tour with WW1 play Far Far From Ypres

The play marks the impact of the war on ordinary people.

Far Far From Ypres features the Kingdom’s Sangsters alongside the likes of Barbara Dickson, Siobhan Miller, Dick Gaughan, Ian McCalman, and Iain Anderson, as Scotland prepares to mark 100 years since the end of the war.

The critically-acclaimed show examines the impact the war had on Scotland and its people.

It uses a mixture of folk, poetry, music hall, and marching songs to show the war through the eyes of a fictional soldier named Jimmy MacDonald.

The multimedia play shares the hope, suffering, endurance and fear associated with the war through Jimmy’s eyes.

Like many young men, Jimmy is full of enthusiasm and joins up right away, however, when he is sent to the Flanders trenches he begins to experience the true horrors of war.

Fiona Forbes of Sangsters said the show was very moving.

She said: “It’s about the role of Scotland and the Scottish soldiers in the war.

“There’s about 25 of us in a chorus, we stand in an arc, and behind us on a screen we have pictures that relate to the songs that are being sung.

“For the audience it’s a very moving show.

“It’s not about a particular Jimmy MacDonald, it’s just any soldier from any Scottish village.

“However small the village in Scotland, there’s going to be a big memorial to World War One, and in most will be a lad you could equate to Jimmy MacDonald.

“It’s very Scottish-themed. There were more Scots by percentage of population killed than any other allied country, and there was a high percentage from the Western Isles.

“Some of the young officers, their life expectancy when they went to the front, was just six weeks. You’re talking just young men.

“There’s a lot of very touching stories about what happened to just ordinary people and the affect the war had on them.”

Dunfermline’s Barbara Dickson takes part in the show in memory of her uncle David Dickson, who enlisted while underage and was killed in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The show is producedby WW100 Scotland in partnership with Legion Scotland and Poppyscotland.

An album; Far Far From Ypres; Songs Poems and Music of World War One has also been produced.

Far, Far From Ypres will be touring Scotland in the coming months, ending with a concert at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on November 11, Armistice Day.

For tickets, go to www.usherhall.co.uk/whats-on/far-far-ypres