The Front: Music, Sadness and Humour from The WWI Trenches of Fromelle, France – Adelaide Cabaret Festival Review

Dunstan Playhouse, Mon 8 Jun Set in the trenches of Fromelles, France in WW1, The Front has been a labour of love by writer/composer Lane Hinchcliffe. Making its professional debut (in its current format) at Adelaide Cabaret Festival, this dramatic musical theatre production follows the fortunes of four diggers and a couple of nurses as they farewell their loved ones to ‘fight the Huns’. The narrative switches back and forth between these service-men and women and present day Aussie Arthur who, with son and grandson in tow, visit the war graves in France in search of closure. This dramatic technique served to establish very real connections between past and present, as the audience became privy to the heartache and experiences of those that Arthur and his family sought to understand. What unfolded was a beautifully written and composed musical theatre work that has human courage and love at its very heart. Musical Director and pianist Matthew Carey’s respect for the composition allowed the music to speak for itself – alternately tender, romantic, arresting and highly emotive. The fine cast were a joy to watch, all doing justice to a bank of characters that although well known in ANZAC folklore, were brought to life through good direction and sound voice and acting skills. Of particular note was seasoned stage actor Martin Crewes, pulling at the heartstrings as the stoic and ultimately heroic, Captain Frank Holloway. Likewise, young digger Willy (Nicholas Winter) was the embodiment of the naivety of youth, his cries for his mother from the killing fields eliciting an equally strong response from an increasingly teary audience. Popular Adelaide actor Paul Blackwell was absolutely superb as the elderly Arthur, providing the narrative anchor that connects past and present, while Catherine Campbell and Roseanne Hosking shone vocally as Matron Nellie and Miriam Holloway respectively. In its theatrical infancy, The Front is already a powerful piece of theatre, the standing ovation by a Kleenex waving audience clearly highlighting its future promise. Rosie van Heerde