All is Calm:The Christmas Truce of 1914 blends the sentiments of Christmas with the memorial of Remembrance Day, so director Fran Rude is excited to bring the show back to the Yates Theatre, Nov. 19-21.
“It’s been on the books since 2020, but because of Covid, we couldn’t do it, so I’m excited to finally get a chance to bring it back to stage,” said Rude, choking up with the emotion of finally being able to do live theatre again.
“ Artists were hit so hard by Covid. we couldn’t do anything,” she said.
This production will be a fundraiser for the Lethbridge Seniors Organization (LSCO) as was the last production in 2019.
She recruited a top notch cast of actors and singers including John Conlon, Dan Hall, Tyler Leavitt, Jonathan Northcott, Ken Rogers who is also musical director for the show, Don Robb, Josh Sherwood, Brenton Taylor, Tony Zappone, Stephen Graham, Devin Law and Jeff Steed, who play 39 different characters performing 34 a capella songs in four different languages. They have been rehearsing since mid-September.
“These are all classically trained singers,” Rude enthused.
“Three days is enough because all of the actors have jobs,” she said.
The Peter Rothstein penned “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce on 1914” (Erick Lichte and Timothy C Takach composed the musical arrangements) is inspired by an actual event which happened on Christmas Eve, 1914 in the middle of the First World War.
“It’s a miracle. A German soldier waving a white flag proceeded to walk across No Mans Land abut 50 miles outside of Ypres, Belgium, singing ‘Silent Night.’ It’s a miracle he wasn’t killed. A British officer met him and shook his hand. They soldiers ended up singing Christmas carols and exchanging gifts. But the truce only lasted until the end of Christmas Day,” Rude summarized, noting all of the dialogue in the production comes from the journals, letters and poetry written by the soldiers, which makes the story all the more poignant.