Oh! What a Lovely War 1963

Based on a treatment by Ted Allan


Based on World War I factual data found in official records, memoirs and commentaries including those of the Imperial War Museum, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Gen. Erich Ludendorff, Field Marshal Graf von Schlieffen, Marshal Joffre, Field Marshal Earl Haig, Field Marshal Sir John French, Gen. Sir Henry Wilson, Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George, Philip Noel-Baker, Alan Clark, Engelbracht and Hanighen, Siegfried Sassoon, Sir Philip Gibbs, Edmund Blunden, Leon Wolff, Captain Liddell Hart, Barbara Tuchman, Herman Kahn, the London newspapers Times and Doily Express.

Oh! What a Lovely War was partly improvised by its cast and director, then assembled into a collage depicting the horrors of World War I through period songs and words borrowed from official records, war memoirs, and personal recollections. Almost everything in the show was actually written or spoken between 1914 and 1918. A powerful anti-war piece and a scathing indictment of military blunders and the futile loss of lives, the material of Oh! What a Lovely War was presented within the framework of an English seaside entertainment, called a Pierrot show, and featuring a master of ceremonies.