The End of Reason 1916, in Schools now

'Lie of the land' - a site specific Big Brum drama
at Highbury Hall earlier this year

Big Brum Theatre in Education Company have started their autumn term tour into schools with their third World War One play, ‘Over The Top’. 

Summer 1916. 141 days of horror begin as the Battle of the Somme becomes one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.  The play and Theatre in Education programme tells the story of a young Irish soldier joining up against the background of the Easter uprising in Dublin, as his childhood sweetheart is sent to a hospital receiving casualties from the first few days of the Battle of the Somme. 

Filming Untold Stories

So here I’m sat at my desk, looking through scores of photos and hours of footage, wondering how I’m going to pull so much fantastic stuff together.  My job, you see, is to turn all of the lectures, interviews, workshops and explorations we have undertaken through our ‘Untold Stories’ project into a finished film for our launch on 13^th September.

Untold stories – sites of treatment

Great Hall, University of Birmingham

In late 1914 plans were made to establish auxiliary hospitals in large private houses across Birmingham, predominantly in the south of the city. While we found out a lot about some sites in the city that were used as hospitals during the First World War (i.e. the University of Birmingham, Highbury Hall in Moseley), others were initially more mysterious.

Over the top

Touring to schools from October to December 2016

Summer 1916. 141 days of horror begin as the Battle of the Somme becomes one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. In a crowded hospital near the front line a nurse scrubs the floor in the relentless war against infection and disease, but not all the wounds of war can be treated in this manner.

“It’s not the missing limbs that haunts you.
Its what’s missing behind the eyes, inside.”