THE Wharf Theatre in Devizes has joined in the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War with a production of David Haig’s 1997 play, My Boy Jack, on until Saturday at the canalside venue.

Rudyard Kipling, as well as being a celebrity author in his own day, was a prime mover in the pro-war movement leading up to the conflict, his fiery diatribes against Imperial Germany being very much in tune with the popular feeling of the time.

But Kipling didn’t stop at lending his words to the fight. He managed to get his heavily myopic son, Jack, who had already been turned down as unfit by both the Army and the Royal Navy, commissioned as a lieutenant in the Irish Guards.

Jack is posted as “missing – presumed wounded” and Kipling and his wife Carrie dedicate their lives to finding out where he is.

Their quest is brought to a terrifying end when they interview a shell-shocked soldier, Michael Bowe, who witnessed Jack’s final moments.

Mr Haig’s play deftly interweaves the strands of jingoism, fear, horror and loss into a compelling view of the conflict and, in the main, the Wharf cast bring it to life.

One would wish that Kim Wright’s production had more pace and movement.

Michael Polack is completely convincing as the Nobel laureate and Abigail Newton as Carrie handles the emotion of a grieving mother extremely well. There are sterling performances from Ryan Chown, who, as Jack, ably portrays the transition from gauche teenager to caring Army officer, and Josie McBrine as his feisty sister.

Those playing the soldiers do brilliantly, particularly Jonathan West, who gives a poignant portrayal of Guardsman Bowe, whose chilling description of the Battle of Loos, at which Jack lost his life, will forever live in the memory.

This is a play that must be seen as a warning that war, however salutary its motive, is never the answer to human conflict.

MARTIN SMITH