Cranford Review 2015

“All
Our Heroes” play was very dramatic and engaging as it was based on
people’s lives which then made you feel more connected to the play. The
fact that the main story was about war and from the perspectives of the people who
lived in India made the play even more powerful as it has not been spoken on it before
about how some countries just got pulled into the war without having a choice. It went
into depth and detail about how this war affected different classes in India. The piece
was presented with only 3 actors; who played many different characters, who made the
switches through the use of costume. The use of limited props but made it even more
effective and in depth because of their symbolic meaning for example the ladder that
was symbolic of the how the farmers sowed their land and then it was used as the barrier
between the countries who were at war and finally as a look out post on the rooftop of
a home in a village where a young boy looks out for his father and then a look out post
in England where they are looking for enemies approaching.
Zara Choudhry (year 11 GCSE drama student 2015)
“My personal
response to this
play is that I think
the play was really
good; it had a lot of
passion to it but I
think it could have
been longer because
I wanted to get
more engaged in the
play because it was
really intense”.
Nia Morgan Herman
(year 11 GCSE
drama student)
At
first I believed that the play
would be created around the
topic of war only; that it would be dull
like all the war plays I have reviewed,
however when the play started I was
grabbed by the performance skills and
I found it very interesting as it was
from a different perspective. Their aim
was to mark the centenary of the First
World War; ‘All Our Heroes’ explores
the stories and perspectives of men and
women from the Indian sub-continent
far, far away.
I think that it was thought-provoking
because it was from a complete different
perspective, one that is never told to us in schools and we had never learnt; for example we are always shown
the British side of the war and how they felt during the war. These performances showed us that people living in
Asian countries, who I thought, were not in so much tension and were in good living conditions were suffering
badly from the war.
Personally I think that the play was valuable to watch, this is because it makes all of us aware of the things
happening in other countries and reminds us of how much we have developed during the past centuries. Also
it reminds us the role that was played by each country during the world war. The message of the play probably
was to show that life was not easy for anybody and that they were also suffering throughout the world war. From
this performance I learnt that I should view different things from a different perspective. I understood the play
very well and enjoyed it a lot due to there being only 3 main actors which made it easier for you to focus on. The
theatre and stage being small made the audience feel closer and connected to the actors.
Diba Sarvari (year 11 GCSE drama student 2015)
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