The First World War is regarded by many as the greatest watershed in western history. The boundary between modernity and history, where technology, politics and, most crucially, social conventions were bloodily wrenched from an age of emperors and agriculture to one of steel and revolution. All Quiet on the Western Front, written by German trench veteran Erich Maria Remarque, has taken its place as the literary evocation of war's futility – a status confirmed by a classic silent movie and its banning under the Nazis.
In the trenches A sprawling story, following a group of friends from schoolyard to slaughter, All Quiet asks a lot of any theatre and its actors. Between the shell storms of enemy bombardments and child-like tenderness, it has to link the audience with an experience almost beyond conception but one we know happened.
 | | All's quiet! |
From an uneven, stagy start, with the emotions and motivations of the callow school friends scarcely touched upon, the production gains momentum. Once the shooting starts and characters are more fully developed, a sense of everyday dread is well evoked. Despite the smart staging, with ever changing piles of kits boxes serving as trenches, toilets and taverns, is difficult to visualise the scale of the war - but the intimacy of terror is sharply realised, the stifling claustrophobia of shelling and shooting cleverly conjured with no more than slamming doors and a squealing harmonica. Neat theatrical tricks, as where the lead character Paul Baumer is divided between two actors so we can witness both his physicals actions and internal thoughts, are surprisingly effective. Staples of war And the staple of war stories, the spirit de corps, the friendship forged in the crucible, is convincing, whether they are buying women's favours with bread or picking lice from their clothes.
 | | All Quiet On The Western Front |
The problem with this is the underlying age of the writing. It lacks an emotional sophistication. All the characters are basically honest and upright, all quietly bemoan their lot but do their duty. There are no bad people. No one is selfish, vicious or cruel. This means they lack an undeniable and often displayed human dimension. The decades old cliché of Lions led by Donkeys now seems a little blunt.
But for power and emotion, a picture of terrible, inevitable, mindless waste, this is a substantial achievement. Four stars out of five. | 
