Heritage Hub

Staging World War 1
Theatre during the War
Staging World War 1 investigates entertainment
during the First World War,
particularly theatre.
Led by Andrew Maunder of the English
Literature Group at the University of
Hertfordshire, the project also examines
variety and music hall.
Investigating First World War entertainment.
Popular wartime entertainment
Staging World War 1 is intended as a
corrective to the dominant literary view
of the war, which tends to come from
poetry from authors like Wilfred Owen
and Siegfried Sasson.
More people during the war went to the
theatre than read poems, with powerful
messages sent out via the theatre and
music halls.
Theatre helped shape people’s understanding
of the conflict, but most of this
work has long been forgotten about.
Two of these lost plays were recently
performed by Twisted Events Theatre
Company:
-Edmund Goulding’s God Save King
(1914)
-Berte Thomas’s For My Country
(1917)
Future productions
Staging World War 1 is currently working
on two more performances: John
Brandon’s The Pacifist (1918) and Herbert
Tremaine’s The Handmaidens of
Death (1919), which follows female
munitions workers.
In real life `Herbert Tremaine’ was
Letchworth author, Maude Deuchar.
Get involved with the Staging
World War 1 project
Staging World War 1 is currently working
on two more performances: John
Brandon’s The Pacifist (1918) and Herbert
Tremaine’s The Handmaidens of
Death (1919), which follows female
munitions workers.
In real life `Herbert Tremaine’ was
Letchworth author, Maude Deuchar.