{"product_id":"somme-letters-home-by-caleb-marshall","title":"Somme Letters Home by Caleb Marshall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e is drawn from the forty-five letters Pte. John Bapst Cronin wrote home to Saint John, New Brunswick while serving with the 49th Western Battalion during the First World War. Moving between the Cronin family kitchen and Bapst’s experience overseas, the play follows him from training on Salisbury Plain to leave in London, hospital, the trenches of Flanders, and finally the Battle of the Somme.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough Bapst’s letters, we meet a charming, funny, resilient young Canadian soldier doing his best to reassure his family while the realities of war press closer with each letter. At home, his sister Molly reads, waits, worries, and struggles to find her own place in the war effort.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntimate, theatrical, and music-infused,\u003cem\u003e Somme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e gives voice to one ordinary soldier whose story speaks for many. More than a history lesson, it is a deeply human remembrance of family, sacrifice, humour, fear, grief, and the terrible cost of war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e received its professional premiere as part of a New Brunswick tour, presented by Saint John Theatre Company, on November 8, 2014, at the BMO Studio Theatre in Saint John, and on November 9, 2014, at The TNB Open Space Theatre in Fredericton.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e is drawn directly from the forty-five letters Pte. John Bapst Cronin wrote home to Saint John, New Brunswick while serving with the 49th Western Battalion during the First World War. The letters, compiled by Fergus Cronin and supplied by the Cronin family and the National Archives of Canada, preserve a deeply personal piece of Canadian military and family history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe play is especially well suited to schools, universities, museums, legions, libraries, historical societies, Remembrance Day programming, and community commemorations. It offers audiences a personal entry point into the First World War through one ordinary soldier’s voice and the experience of the family waiting at home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a cast of two and minimal staging requirements, the piece is highly tourable and can be produced simply, with recorded sound or optional live musical accompaniment. Because the work is based on real letters and family history, productions should approach the material with appropriate respect for the historical source, the Cronin family, veterans, and audiences for whom the First World War remains personal or commemorative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGenre: Historical, Biographical, Adaptation\u003cbr\u003eActs: 1\u003cbr\u003eRun time: 75 minutes\u003cbr\u003eContent notes:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e deals with the First World War and its impact on soldiers and families. Content includes:\u003cbr\u003e• War, combat, and trench warfare.\u003cbr\u003e• References to death, injury, shelling, gas attacks, bayonets, and battlefield conditions.\u003cbr\u003e• Grief, anxiety, and family loss.\u003cbr\u003e• Historical wartime language and attitudes.\u003cbr\u003e• References to enlistment, patriotism, military service, and casualties.\u003cbr\u003e• Some coarse language.\u003cbr\u003e• Discussion of a real soldier killed in action.\u003cbr\u003eThe play does not rely on graphic gore, but the emotional content is mature and may be affecting, particularly in school, Remembrance Day, veteran, or family-history contexts. Recommended for students 12+, with educator discretion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCast size: 2 actors\u003cbr\u003eMale roles: 1\u003cbr\u003eFemale roles: 1\u003cbr\u003eCasting notes: \u003cem\u003eSomme Letters Home\u003c\/em\u003e is written as an intimate two-hander for Bapst Cronin and Molly Cronin. The actors carry the emotional and historical world of the play, moving between direct address, letters, memory, wartime scenes, and the home front.\u003cbr\u003eBapst should have warmth, humour, charm, and emotional resilience, with the ability to reveal the cumulative strain of war beneath an outwardly cheerful voice. Molly should have intelligence, strength, frustration, tenderness, and a clear sense of responsibility to family and country.\u003cbr\u003eThe play was first created with Richard Cronin, Bapst’s great-nephew, in the role of Bapst, but the work is not dependent on familial casting. The piece can be staged simply and is well suited to touring, schools, Remembrance Day programming, historical venues, legion halls, museums, community spaces, and theatres.\u003cbr\u003eCasting should be sensitive to the historical setting, the Irish-Catholic Saint John family context, and the Canadian military history represented in the source material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeywords: Somme Letters Home; John Bapst Cronin; Pte. John Bapst Cronin; Private John Bapst Cronin; First World War; World War I; WWI; Great War; Battle of the Somme; Regina Trench; 49th Western Battalion; Canadian Expeditionary Force; Canadian military history; Saint John New Brunswick; New Brunswick; Atlantic Canada; letters home; wartime letters; soldiers’ letters; remembrance; Remembrance Day; veterans; military history; documentary theatre; verbatim theatre; historical drama; biography; family history; National Archives of Canada; trench warfare; Flanders; Salisbury Plain; London leave; wartime family; home front; women and war; Molly Cronin; Bapst Cronin; Canadian soldiers; educational theatre; school touring; history classroom; sacrifice; grief; patriotism; letters from the front; live music; two-hander; small cast; touring play; minimal set; archival source material; Canadian history play.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PGC","offers":[{"title":"Digital (PDF)","offer_id":46764760170669,"sku":"978-1-77405-361-4","price":14.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2362\/0235\/files\/SommeLettersCOVER.jpg?v=1783428793","url":"https:\/\/www.canadianplayoutlet.com\/products\/somme-letters-home-by-caleb-marshall","provider":"Canadian Play Outlet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}