Theater Review: Theater Latte Da's production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, by Peter Rothstein, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach

Poster for All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, by Peter Rothstein.

Last week my wife and I saw Theater Latte Da’s production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. We had both heard great things about this show, but hadn’t actually seen it. It’s a powerful piece of drama, created in 2007 by Latte Da’s artistic director, Peter Rothstein, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach. All is Calm tells the true story of a brief armistice that occurred on the trenches of the Western front during the first Christmas of World War I. Rothstein did extensive research in European archives to find the primary source documents that are the backbone of All is Calm.

 

However, All is Calm is more than just a narrative of stories of the Christmas truce, it also mixes together popular music of the time along with Christmas carols and traditional songs from both sides. So Haydn’s “Deutschlandlied” nestles up next to Ivor Novello’s “Keep the Home-Fires Burning” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” a chant from the 12^th century. The power of All is Calm is enhanced by the fact that the twelve actors who portray all the different roles in the piece are also doing all of the singing, which features many beautiful blended harmonies. Oh, and did I mention that all of the singing is a cappella? It’s an impressive feat, and the twelve singer/actors did an amazing job. 

As All is Calm unfolds, we see the brief, happy interlude as both sides lay down their arms and embrace their common humanity. However, our joy is tempered by the fact that we know these men will keep senselessly fighting and killing each other for another four years. There is a real sadness when the fighting inevitably continues, and it does make one pause and wonder what might have happened had the informal truce lasted longer than just one day.

Peter Rothstein has done an outstanding job of creating a unique and powerful statement about warfare, one that will linger in the minds and hearts of audiences for a long time. As he writes in the program notes, “Their story puts a human face on war, and that’s the story I hope to tell.”

Book Review: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)

Paperback cover of All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, originally published in Germany in 1929.

Author Erich Maria Remarque, 1898-1970.

Erich Maria Remarque’s war novel All Quiet on the Western Front has long been hailed as a classic. It’s another book that I’ve long had on my list of “great books I should read,” and this year I finally read it. It’s an excellent book. Remarque’s prose style is simple and direct, which fits the book. There is no romance in this novel, only cold, hard truths about men in warfare. 

All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated by Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who enlisted in 1914 shortly after the beginning of the World War I. Bäumer relates the mundane routines of Army life, and he also explains how he and his classmates were influenced to enlist by a teacher of theirs. 

All Quiet on the Western Front has aged extremely well. It still feels like a fresh and vital book, even though it’s more than 80 years old. Remarque shows us the futility of wars, especially World War I, where many battles were fought over tiny pieces of land that were not of great strategic significance. 

While Remarque’s novel was highly praised and sold very well after its release in 1929, it was banned in Germany when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Hitler certainly didn’t want anyone in Germany to read an anti-war novel that might have made people question the efficacy of war. 

With All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque created a powerful novel that still demands our attention.