The air is filled with the drone of heavy aircraft engines, punctuated by radio comms chatter as bomber pilots try to avoid being caught like a fly in a net of searchlights and flack.
The chances could be determined by the toss of a coin, and it looks like luck might have run out for the crew whom now burst into the empty school building behind enemy lines.
They already believe that two of their company are dead and they should be working to put as many miles as possible between them and the downed “kite”. Central to their discussions however is badly wounded Flight Lieutenant John Darwin. He is no fit state to move and while some could make a run for it they could lead the Germans to them – and besides, they are a crew.
Young Frank “Spog” Campbell is a bit more spooked than the others, less worried by the Luftwaffe than by the prospect of irate villagers with pitchforks. As tensions rise Dicky, an Eastend wide boy with little sense of rank, tries to keep them entertained with jokes and by impersonating the CO back in Blighty.
But few things are as they appear, nothing is ever quite as black and white as the stereotypes would suggest. As they fret and banter each reveals a little of what brought them into the war and the effect it has had upon them and those they have left back home.
Navigator Arthur Gimby had been working on a small provincial paper before signing up, investigating a story that Bomber Command has not been effective in hitting targets and has courted retribution in the form of V1, flying bomb strikes.
When Anna turns up claiming that, whilst German, she is a member of the resistance doubts are raised. As a witness to the horrors inflicted on civilians by both sides she can give a first-hand account. But as they recall the Hamburg raid there is something even more unnerving.
This is a good looking production with great attention to detail in the set and costume design. The acting is generally good, even if the characters are a little two-dimensional, filling hackneyed niches. The structure suffers a little too, with each character taking a “turn” at filling in back story. What might have just been a story of a brave aircrew is elevated by probing the carpet-bombing “experiment” which deliberately targeted workers to reduce industrial output.
The appropriately youthful company have done well to produce something that is faithful to young men and women facing extraordinary, brutal war-time circumstances.
Show Times: 15 – 27 (not 21) August 2016 at 3pm.
Tickets: £8 (£5). £20 (family).
Suitability: 14+