REVIEW: Alnwick Theatre Club pay poignant tribute to fallen

Sombre yet humorous, with moving moments and even talk of sexual encounters, Requiem, held at St James's Church in Alnwick, was a combination of stories, songs, poems and prose relating to the First World War and the centenary of the Armistice.

It saw 12 members of the club, fittingly dressed in black with poppies on their chests and red folders to guide them through, thoroughly captivate the audience.

Two hours listening to the stories of men who went to war, the women who spent all day in munitions factories, children who wrote to their fathers, poetry and songs felt like two minutes.

Each member of the cast took their turn in reading a passage from a letter or story, a poem or a song - and they put passion and emotion into those readings. It was particularly nice that they worked together in some of the stories with different members taking on different roles such as the soldier and his commander.

The saddest of all, and one which made me well up, had to be John Firth's portrayal of a letter written by a soldier to his daughter Marjory, in which he said he wouldn't be home for Christmas and she would have to make do with Santa that year. He asked her to send him more pictures to 'line the sandbags' and spoke lovingly of her. He died in 1917, in his pocket a picture of his three daughters was found.