Oh What a Lovely War’ was created by Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop in 1963. The company operated out of the Theatre Royale in East Stratford during the 1950’s and 60’s. With Littlewood as the company’s major creative force, Theatre Workshop forged a reputation for revolutionary political theatre. “She not only encouraged a new breed of working class actor, but, through her pioneering improvisatory techniques, drew on their own experiences liberally tearing up texts in order to arrive at a deeper truth. The result was a series of productions that has passed into theatrical myth.” (Arditti , 2006)

An idea was brought to Joan Littlewood by collaborator and partner Gerry Raffles; to create an anti-war play based around the songs presented on Charles Chilton’s radio musical The Long Long Trail composed of popular WWI songs. The company began research and drew on two other main sources, namely 'The Donkeys' by military historian (and future Conservative politician) Alan Clark, with some scenes adapted from 'The Good Soldier Švejk' by Czech humourist Jaroslav Hašek. Through improvisation, they developed the scenes that linked the songs and became the script for 'Oh What a Lovely War'.

The play is set in an Edwardian Music Hall, a variety show format that reached its height in popularity during World War One. It was entertainment for the people, topical, and sometimes political. During the war the artists and composers threw themselves into rallying public support and enthusiasm for the war effort. Patriotic music hall compositions such as "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), "Pack up Your Troubles" (1915), "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (1914) and "We Don't Want to Lose You (but we think you ought to Go)" were sung by music hall audiences, and sometimes by soldiers in the trenches (Russell, 1997). 

Oh What a Lovely War opens with an overture of these songs, and an MC who invites a troupe of Pierrot clowns – The Merry Roosters – to start up with a song (Row, Row, Row) after which he announces to the audience that this evening the company shall present “for your entertainment, the ever-popular WAR GAMES!”. What unfolds from here is essentially a documentary-theatre account of the events leading up to, and including the First World War, presented through Music Hall songs, sketches, and dances. It is episodic in nature, and ironic in its depiction of the atrocious waste of human life by the masters and profiteers of war through a comic medium.

The violence of war is not directly conveyed by the actors, but rather by two other stars of the show: newspanel and slides. The newspanel periodically scrolls text across its screen at significant moments in the show such as at the beginning of Act 2.

“Newspanel APRIL 22….BATTLE OF YPRES…GERMANS USE POISON GAS…BRITISH LOSS 59,275 MEN…MAY9…AUBERS RIDGE…BRITISH LOSS 11,619 MEN IN 15 HOURS…LAST OF B.E.F…GAIN NIL. SEPT 25…LOOS…BRITISH LOSS 8236 MEN IN 3 HOURS…GERMAN LOSS NIL.”

The slide projector also tells the story through selected images.

The play covers a huge amount in a short space; gas, bombs, profiteers of war, conscription, propaganda, the officers jousting for power and prestige, the Christmas day meeting in no-mans land which saw soldiers from both sides sharing gifts and playing soccer together, the slaughter of millions, and the gain of virtually nothing by anyone.

Oh What a Lovely War can be described as epic theatre, documentary drama, musical theatre, agit-prop theatre, or a combination of all of these. It draws on many of the techniques of Bertolt Brecht and Piscator. In some ways it goes beyond anything these practitioners had envisioned in terms of it’s power to stand the audience outside the action to be moved politically, and yet also be moved emotionally, despite this detachment. Or perhaps because of it.

References.
Arditti, M. 2006 Making a Scene.http://www.michaelarditti.com/non-fiction/joan-littlewood-making-a-scene/ (Retrieved on 18th August 2013)
Russell, D. 1997. Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: A Social History. Manchester, University Press.