THE current conflict with Russia invading Ukraine has shocked the world. As Putin defies all and marches his troops on we fear it could escalate into a nuclear attack and create a major international conflict.
We can only pray that won’t be the case.
Those who have passed the 80 year old mark have memories of what it was like to live during a war, even if they were only a young child at the time.
They would have huddled around the radio listening to broadcasts to the nation by world leaders and watched on as families in their street sent their sons and daughters off to fight for our freedom.
Last week I took my mother-in-law, Muriel, along to the Ipswich Musical Theatre Company’s Production of “Songs that Won the War” and as we drove over to the Old Courthouse she spoke about her war memories as an eight year old and how she remembered when the Japanese mini submarines attacked in Sydney Harbour.
She spoke about hearing the sirens and been told to hold her young brother and to get under the kitchen table and not to move.
Her mother was part of the reserves and she had been instructed what to do and where to go if we came under attack.
She had raced out the door leaving her alone with her brother in a darkened house.
It was a sombre introduction to the afternoon’s performance and it gave be a small insight into what it must have been like for families in those dreadful years.
Ipswich’s Clive Render wrote “Songs that Won the War” 11 years ago and it has been held on the Sunday prior to Remembrance Day in Ipswich ever since.
It is much more than just performers getting up and singing war songs.
The narration by Susan Glosko was haunting as she took us on a journey back to the war years in England.
You feel at times as though you are with those families, running for cover, listening to Winston Churchill, and trembling in fear as another flying bomb sounding like a badly tuned motorbike passed overhead.
The Old Courthouse was packed for the single performance and if the room were larger the crowd would have been double the number that attended.
I went and watched the Ipswich Musical Society’s “We Will Rock You” production months ago and while it was excellent it is performances like last Sunday’s which really stamp our local musical company as one we should all support.
It is unfair to name just one or two from the large number of performers, but Elise Pickersgill, Raymond Chandler and Lauren Roche should take a second bow.
I would love to see “Songs That Won The War” come back for an encore performance in the next few weeks and if does I recommend that you go along and watch it, no matter your age.
