Review: Birdsong at the Liverpool Playhouse

To adapt it for television was a challenge. It worked well then. And it is now equally powerful on stage.

Writer Rachel Wagstaff has managed the transition from page to stage with real passion before. She has done it again.

Rachel had more than a little help from Mr Faulks himself who could see that she would handle it with care.

This is a new version on UK tour following a previous West End hit.

The action of the play takes place on the Western Front, in France during 1916- 1918. The two-and-a-half hour production also moves back to 1910.

This is a masterstroke of direction by Alastair Whatley on a faultless trench set by Victoria Spearing, which ensures audiences are gripped from start to poignant end.

We switch from depths of despair in the trenches to a French drawing room, our imagination aided by the swiftness of scene changes.

It is the story of sensitive, superstitious officer Stephen Wraysford, played with style and confidence by Edmund Wiseman.

Peter Duncan as Jack Firebrace  Picture: Jack Ladenburg

He is in love with Isabelle Azaire, played with sheer elegance and real sexual chemistry by Emily Bowker.

Their love scenes are beautifully choreographed.

Television favourite Peter Duncan (he of Blue Peter fame) is an accomplished actor and excels as Jack Firebrace adding touches of real humanity during the nightmare that was the living hell of the many battles of The Somme.

The 12-strong cast clearly relish this first class piece of dramatic storytelling and the wistful songs add as much beauty as the final birdsongs we hear when the explosions fade away and the poppies start to grow.

A superb adaptation of a book that brings home the horrors, loss, love and the ultimate triumph of human spirit during the war that was supposed to end all wars.

Globe verdict: 9/10 Heart-breaking drama.

The show runs until this Saturday, April 18.

Box office: 0151 709 4776 or buy tickets online by clicking here