Tunnel Vision

It’s story, story, story, that’s what we concentrate on. “Because while there’s a real trend for interactive, experimental theatre at the moment, which we dip into, the narrative often seems to lose out in favour of effects, so for us, it always comes down to the story.”

So speaks James Seager, co-directer of The Trench, which is touring Oxfordshire over the coming months, hitting The Mill in Banbury, North Wall in Summertown, The Theatre Chipping Norton and The Cornerstone in Didcot.

As its title suggests, The Trench is set in the First World War and based around a British soldier who gets entombed in a tunnel and slowly loses his mind until the audience is unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.

James says: “It’s the first play we have set in historical times and the challenges have been about how to create that feeling of claustrophobia on stage. “So while The Trench starts off quite traditionally, half way through it has a tonal shift which gives us a chance to introduce puppetry, music, projection, acrobatics and animation. And it’s always exciting introducing people to things they might not have seen before.”

Written by fellow Les Enfants Terribles co-founder, director and writer Oli Lansley, The Trench is actually an epic poem shared out between the actors. “It’s a screwed version of reality really, and means the audience never knows what’s real and what’s not. We leave it to their imagination,” James, 37, explains.

So why this detour into warfare? “I’ve always been obsessed with the First World War ever since a school trip to Belgium,” James tells me. “But we were also inspired by the story of William Hackett who was buried alive in a tunnel after rescuing three fellow tunnellers and then choosing to stay and die with a young, trapped soldier.

“He was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery and there is a statue of him in Belgium. “We discovered his story five years ago and that was the starting point of the play for us because it’s an important part of history to remember.

“Besides, tunnelers are quite a new topic, and not much was known about them until about 20 years ago. “Obviously thanks to Sebastian Faulks and Birdsong we now know more but they are still finding tunnels today, nearly 100 years later,” he adds.

Not that their play choices are always so tragic, their next production – Les Enfants Terribles’ Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie – having a Terry Gilliam influence, depicting a vanload of charlatans who drive around telling morality tales.

“We are also working on a piece to tour the festivals with this summer, one to take to Edinburgh and one for later on in the year, so we are always talking about new things and new work.”

So what inspires them? “As long as it’s challenging and what we’d want to see or watch, we’ll do it.

“It’s whatever excites us and what will inspire and challenge our audiences most,” James adds.

Selling out everywhere they go, Les Enfants Terribles is really going places, considering it started off in 2001 as a way of two jobbing actors taking a play to Edinburgh every year.

“That’s still the exciting thing about touring – taking the play to all the different venues and seeing how the audiences react. It’s just great that people are so positive.”

The Trench runs at the North Wall in Summertown on April 18 and is sold out, at The Theatre Chipping Norton on May 21, call 01608 642350 or see chippingnortontheatre.com and at Didcot Cornerstone on June 1, call 01235 515144 or see cornerstone-arts.org