All Is Calm:The Christmas Truce of 1914

Unlike most people, who head to holiday-season shows for a night out, I attend them as part of my job. I'm not complaining. I've had plenty of jobs that required far less exciting ways to spend my evenings. (Have you ever been to a zoning board meeting? Now imagine trying to craft a coherent and readable piece of writing out of those dealings.) Still, attending relentlessly cheerful Christmas programs isn't really my speed. However, even if it wasn't part of the job, I'd see All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. This is a piece that embraces the spirit of the season: a brief light amid four of the darkest years of the early 20th century. The piece takes its inspiration from the informal truce that occurred during the first Christmas of World War I, when soldiers from both sides set aside their weapons and bridged No Man's Land. Created by Theatre Latte Da and Cantus, the show features a mix of traditional carols and popular songs from the time, along with letters home and other remembrances from soldiers in the trenches. The music is beautiful and haunting, as the message of peace and hope cuts across the growing killing fields that would scar Europe for years. In the end, it's a play that is all the more uplifting because of its foundation in tragedy, where ordinary men showed goodwill to each other because it was the human thing to do. (Photo by George Byron Griffiths)
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. Starts: Dec. 19. Continues through Dec. 22, 2012