New production at The Bull Theatre portrays how townspeople of Barnet lived through air raids and survived wartime restrictions   

All the stresses and strains – and sometimes laughter – of everyday life in Barnet during the Second World War are captured in an imaginative and often poignant production at The Bull Theatre.

A Nightingale Sang in Barnet: The Blitz and Beyond opened with a sell-out show for the first of four performances highlighting yet again the ability of the Blue Door Theatre Company to deliver original productions celebrating the town’s history and traditions.

Wartime comings and goings among the patrons and staff at the Barnet Odeon provide a constant thread around which there are scenes and story lines based on family memories and tales about the war years.

Seven members of the company wrote the script and based their contributions on their own research, aided by the recollections of local families.

The playwrights succeeded in bringing together what director Siobhan Dunne says is a patchwork quilt of human stories and dramatic events that occurred literally on their doorsteps in Barnet.

The Odeon cinema – now The Everyman – was chosen to frame the highs and lows for the townspeople of Barnet as they coped with air raid duties, bomb damage, food shortages and all the heightened security conditions that restricted day to day life.

All the action is rooted in and around the Barnet of the 1940s with storylines that highlight local street names and places – Wood Street, Union Street, Victoria Bakery, Sebright Road, Arkley, Trotters Bottom and so on – a litany of familiar points of reference. 

A focal point for the play is The Odeon’s bomb shelter which becomes a regular meeting place for cinema staff, patrons and local people – and a centre of intrigue involving numerous plot lines.

Two local wartime dealers in the black market, Ada and Benny Spratt (Janet Parker and Tony Nagle) incur the wrath of the Odeon’s manager Bill Pendleton (Steve Mays) when he finds them in the bomb shelter trying to sell eggs and two chickens to the assembled crowd.

Ada and Benny are undeterred and put up a spirited defence of the kind of action which was frowned upon during the war.

Much of the dialogue reveals the underlying fears within the community, such as the dread of hearing the hum of enemy planes overhead, receiving news of a death at the front, or the need to look out for suspicious behaviour and Fascist sympathisers.

Cinema usherette Ruby Wilson (Teresa Howell) doubles up as a secret listener at the wartime monitoring station at Arkley. After her shift at the Odeon, she cycles off for her hidden duties.

Interspersed between the family vignettes are renditions of much-loved wartime songs and tunes which are greeted with applause and whoops of delight especially for some of the sentimental numbers.

In a glimpse behind the scenes at The Odeon, ARP warden Gwen (Sarah Munford) builds up a friendship with cinema projectionist Danny (Chris Browning).

The Blitz and Beyond does not shy away from tacking potential conflicts facing Jewish refugees and Russian emigres.

The strains and stresses experienced by the Levin family provide a moving reminder of how lives had been upturned by the war – Avram Levin (Tim King), Chana Levin (Rafaella Golding) and Rivka Levin (Ann Moore).

Wartime romances are not forgotten. Alberto (Francesco Giacon) an Italian soldier from a prisoner of war camp at Trotters Bottom, has to say farewell to his sweetheart, recently widowed Rebecca (Brigid Hekster).

Local children have leading roles. Wartime restrictions on keeping pets imply that one’s boy dog is in danger of being put down.

A closing peacetime scene shows two local boys and a girl sitting at the top of King George’s Field gazing across towards the City of London musing on their futures, speculating on how they might be able to contribute to the post-war effort to rebuild the country. 

Threading the story together against a backdrop of an amazing collection of wartime photographs and some compelling clips from cinema newsreels is narrator (Tim King).

One of the film sequences is an account by William Boyes whose father, grandfather and great grandfather were solicitors at 20 Wood Street, Barnet.

He describes how his father – Edward Boyes – was standing in the doorway of 20 Wood Street when a stray bomb was dropped by a German plane on its home run.

Two houses on the opposite side of Wood Street were destroyed in the explosion. Edward Boyes was seriously injured, losing part of his lung, but his father Archie was safe inside the house.

He was unhurt and was photographed emerging into Wood Street holding the family pet’s budgie in its cage.

The show’s finale provides Siobhan Dunne a chance to thank all those behind the scenes including her husband Nick Godwin who arranged the music.

Ms Dunne reminds the audience of Barnet’s good fortune in being able to deliver live theatre and she appeals for contributions towards an emergency appeal for £10,000 towards essential maintenance and running costs at The Bull Theatre. Nearly £3,000 has been raised so far.

For more details of the appeal and a donate button see: https://www.thebulltheatre.com/

A Nightingale Sang in Barnet: The Blitz and Beyond, at The Bull Theatre, High Street, Barnet, Friday 16 October, 7.30pm; Saturday 17 October, 2pm and 7.30pm,