Distinguished a cappella troupe re-enacts World War I cease fire

By: KATIE ANDREW

Posted: 11/20/08

You may not find it in your history textbook. You might not find it in your war documentaries.

This was a freak occurrence, an implausible act of brotherhood in a place where such feelings are strictly forbidden - between enemy lines.

On Dec. 25, 1914, the Allied and German soldiers of the Western Front ceased the war machine of World War I, if only for a short time, to share the joys of the holidays with the very men they'd been ordered to slaughter.

Now, one of the most celebrated a cappella groups in this country, Cantus, will perform a dramatic reenactment of this little-known historical event in "All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914."

"All the different countries that were represented in [World War I], on Christmas Day, formed truces up and down the front lines," said Cantus tenor and artistic co-director, Aaron Humble. "Some of them lasted weeks, others only a couple of hours."

According to historical documents, the soldiers shed their weapons by the thousands to trade gifts of tobacco and liquor.

CANTUS: 'ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914'

When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Hodgson Concert Hall at the Performing Arts Center
Cost: $15 (rear balcony), $20 (orchestra/front balcony); half price for student with valid UGAID

They also engaged in sing-alongs, soccer games and burying fallen soldiers - no matter which side they were on.

"The piece uses found texts, the actual words of men who had experienced this event - some in the form of diaries, poems, letters, official war documents and so on," said artistic director of Cantus, Erick Lichte.

"What Peter Rothstein did, the director and writer of the show, was more or less compile these texts and find the narratives for this story using the real words of these soldiers. It adds a great deal of power to what happened."

Cantus, a nine-member male ensemble, will complement the show's dialogue with a cappella songs.

"We sing everything from trench songs to highly arranged Christmas carols," Lichte said.

"We chose the idea of using a radio drama because this was the means of expression that existed at the time. Radio served a purpose in World War I."

Humble emphasized the importance of underscoring, the music playing quietly under a scene, to this particular piece.

"When you watch a horror movie with the volume turned down, it's not nearly as scary because the music isn't getting you all revved up," Humble explained. "The underscoring comes from all the songs of the time - songs the Germans were singing, songs the British were singing, songs the soldiers were singing to one another."

To bolster the radio drama concept, the show has a bare minimal set design, so the audience has few distractions from the moving story portrayed before them.

"There's not really much of a set or costumes at all. You could really listen to this on the radio and it be almost as powerful," Humble said. "We don't want to take away from the actual words of the soldiers."

Lichte also emphasized how important it is that the audience create their own visuals.

"Peter Rothstein was adamant about the fact that there's no stage big enough to graph the magnitude of war. The Christmas Truce happened along thousands of miles of the front, so we really allow these [images] to happen in the imagination."

Often, said images are so evocative, even the performers aren't immune.

"After performing the show, we saw that one of the biggest challenges was for the singers to not get too emotionally involved," Humble said. "You can't sing if you're crying."