Radstock Museum was transformed last week for a beautifully written, poignant play, shown over four days, including Remembrance Sunday.

Written and Directed by Patrick Withey, and performed by local actors as part of Black Hound Productions, the young cast used the venue brilliantly for this original piece of theatre to honour those who were a part of the Great War, and to really personalise the experience by looking at individuals and their stories, surrounded by the audience with atmospheric lighting and sound used to capture the emotion of the scene.

At the Going Down of the Sun explores the themes of soldiers’ injuries, both mental and physical; disfigurement and the emotional responses it provoked; the role that women played in the war and the beginnings of the

Suffragette movement; alcoholism, PTSD, suicide, and the way that lives were forever changed; both for those who fought, and those back at home, with the repercussions being felt for the next generation, too.

The play begins as the Rhodes family say goodbye to their son Jack in early 1915, as he heads towards Flanders. Emotional letters to him are read aloud to the audience, capturing their worry and fear for their loved one whilst he is away, and showing the sense of helplessness for those at home, whilst they do their best to fill the void and keep the country moving.

Also wanting to join his brother is youngest son, Peter, who signs up at sixteen and leaves without telling his family. Finding himself alongside brother, Jack, on the front line during the Battle of Amiens, Peter is killed in action, the implications of which change the lives of the Rhodes family forever.

The overriding message throughout the play, is one of Remembrance and the importance of keeping the names of those who died alive. In the final note to his wife, Ruth, who is expecting their first child, Jack tells her: ‘My war is not over. Please don’t let the world forget about me.’ In the final scenes, Ruth is telling their son, who has been named Peter, at Jack’s request, all about his father and uncle; with the family laying poppies at the feet of Peter as the play ends and theatre falls into darkness.

The museum as a venue worked beautifully, with members of the public able to walk around the museum an hour before the play, reading about Patrick’s research and looking at the pieces he had collected, including photographs, a helmet and the tin whistle of local soldier, Sammy Taylor, given by local historian and ex-teacher in the area, Chris Howell. Chris also gave Patrick two Somerset Light Infantry badges in the run-up to the production.

Back in August, Director Patrick, Producer, Joseph Owen-Pinckney and William Holmes in Lighting undertook a research trip to Belgium, staying in Ypres. They visited military cemeteries where thousands of men (and women, one of whom was 26-year-old Nellie Spindler, a nurse who died in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917) are buried. They visited a preserved trench system and placed one of two wreaths at the Menin Gate Memorial for the Fallen, beneath the panel dedicated to the Somerset Light Infantry. The other was laid in Radstock last weekend.

The visit was particularly poignant for Joseph, as on the final day, they travelled to Thiepval on the Somme Salient. Joseph’s great great uncle was killed aged nineteen on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the same age as he is now. Over 72,000 British and South African soldiers died on the Somme Salient and have no known resting place.

Patrick says: “I remember as a young boy dressing up as a German soldier, running around in my back garden. I remember watching Harry Patch on television and going to his funeral in Wells with my family. I remember getting upset at school when other children talked during the silence. I remember, three years ago, playing Siegfried Sassoon in ‘Words of War’, a play I had written. I remember, just this summer, laying a wreath at the Menin Gate, surrounded by more than 54,000 names.

“I make sure I remember.”

Nick Hall, Chair of Somerset Coalfield Life at Radstock Museum, told The Journal: “It’s not every day that Radstock Museum plays host to a world premiere, but that’s what we did on Thursday. We have been delighted by the hugely positive responses of the public attending the performances, and massively impressed by the creative talent and professionalism of Patrick Withey, Joe Owen-Pinkney and every member of the cast and crew from Black Hound Productions. They were all a credit to themselves and to the youth of today, remembering the sacrifice of a much earlier but equally young generation.”