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| Mick Ryan & Paul Downes |
A Day’s Work
A Folk Opera by Mick Ryan
Come and hear this folk opera set one hundred years ago
to commemorate the Great War.
Using original songs, spoken verse, monologue, dialogue and movement,
A Day’s Work tells the story of a group of farm labourers,
members of a ‘mummers’ team, who join up, or refuse to join up,
and end up on that first day.
It examines the themes of peace, war, love, hate, courage and cowardice.
Originally written and performed in 1995–6, with great success,
this revival uses a re–written script and a fully professional cast.
With
Mick Ryan
Paul Downes
Maggie Boyle
Heather Bradford
Matt Quinn
Greg Russell
Pete Morton
Singing songs, including:
A Day’s Work
Come and be a soldier
Sons of the land, Flanders Tommy
A land fit for heroes
The lark above the downs
A Day’s Work
Folk opera written by Mick Ryan
The great Duke of Wellington, great British hero
Stood on the ramparts and stared out to sea
The Captain beside him asked him a question
On that day long ago he asked him if he
Could think of a name to stand for the soldier
The soldier who marches, and fights where he must
Who says his goodbye to the girl at his shoulder
Who kills at command and who dies in the dust
And the Iron Duke thought of his first day in action
How he rode through the lines when the battle was won
And there lay a soldier, a poor dying fraction
Of those on all sides whose last day had come
He look at the Duke and saw he was grieving
He looked at the Duke and saw his dismay
“It’s all in a day’s work”, he said, to relieve him
With these words, Tom Atkins passed peaceful away.
Said the Duke, “Thomas Atkins to stand for our nation
Six foot three in his socks, twenty years in the line
Could read, couldn’t write, but without hesitation
The best man at arms in the whole of my time.”
...and, seventy years later, a mass of ‘Tommies’ did another day’s work on the first day of The Battle of the Somme. They died in their thousands.
The great Duke of Wellington, great British hero
Stood on the ramparts and stared out to sea
The Captain beside him asked him a question
On that day long ago he asked him if he
Could think of a name to stand for the soldier
The soldier who marches, and fights where he must
Who says his goodbye to the girl at his shoulder
Who kills at command and who dies in the dust
And the Iron Duke thought of his first day in action
How he rode through the lines when the battle was won
And there lay a soldier, a poor dying fraction
Of those on all sides whose last day had come
He look at the Duke and saw he was grieving
He looked at the Duke and saw his dismay
“It’s all in a day’s work”, he said, to relieve him
With these words, Tom Atkins passed peaceful away.
Said the Duke, “Thomas Atkins to stand for our nation
Six foot three in his socks, twenty years in the line
Could read, couldn’t write, but without hesitation
The best man at arms in the whole of my time.”
...and, seventy years later, a mass of ‘Tommies’ did another day’s work on the first day of The Battle of the Somme. They died in their thousands.
This is another opportunity to hear the team which takes the opera on UK tour following
this preview. Currently they are in the studio making the final recording.
In the Lympstone Village Hall on Tuesday 29th April at 8 pm.
£10 and £5 for under 16s.
Box Office
all our tickets are available from
Demelza Henderson at 2 Brookfield Cottages, Lympstone
01395 272243 or 07516 322853
Brookfield Cottage is opposite the Lympstone Newsagent.
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