The Accrington Pals

by Peter Whelan
Directed by Mark Carroll

'The Accrington Pals' follows the story of the innocent and enthusiastic men who voluntarily enlisted at the beginning of the First World War, in response to General Kitchener's calls for a New Army. Peter Whelan's beautiful and heartfelt play contrasts the Pals' lives on the Western Front with those of the women left behind in Accrington. The women come together as friends as they face financial, social and sexual deprivation, as well as being thrown headlong into the social changes that come along with the absence of so many men. The play has many fun, light-hearted moments, which are starkly contrasted with the terrifying reality hundreds of men faced at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

While the story itself is fiction, the background is reality. The Pals were formed and fought just as they are described as doing in the play.

Whelan's inspiration for The Accrington Pals, he wrote, stemmed from his fascination with a "fuzzy snapshot of his mother taken in the First World War."

The play has been likened to the "documentary plays" of the 1960s and renowned theatre critic, Michael Billington noted its "combination of theatricality and truth" stating it is "one of the best plays ever about the first world war."

Presented by ACT One Year Foundation in Acting