Cantus Radio Drama, 'All Is Calm'

Charles T. Downey, A cappella choir Cantus offers a radio-drama-like re-creation in ‘Christmas Truce of 1914’ (Washington Post, December 7, 2013)

All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, Cantus, Theater Latté Da

The search for a Christmas-themed concert without all those tiresome holiday chestnuts continues each December. The a cappella choir Cantus presented an intriguing solution to this problem Thursday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914,” presented by the Fortas Chamber Music series, is a radio-drama-like re-creation of that Christmas night during World War I that brought German and British soldiers together in no man’s land.

This historical episode has featured as an affecting vignette before, in Steven Spielberg’s film “War Horse,” for example, but it was not clear that it could be adapted to fill an evening. [Continue reading]

All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
Cantus and Theater Latté Da
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

SVILUPPO:
The aim of this recreation, like all retellings of this story, is, I think, to provide an example of the power of Christmas to elicit noble sentiments. In the end, though, rather than being uplifted, one could just as easily be disappointed at the confirmation of the superficiality of the “Christmas spirit,” since after the Christmas truce of 1914, the war resumed at full pace.

SEE ALSO:
Liam O'Brien, War Horse author Michael Morpurgo writes new play about WW1 Christmas truce (The Telegraph, March 24)

Deborah Cohen, The War No Image Could Capture (The Atlantic, December 2013)