I Attend A Performance: The Return of the Unknown
1. When the body of the Unknown Warrior returned to Britain they arrived at Dover, resting for a while a Dover Marine Railway Station. No longer used by the railway, it is now the Cruise Terminal for the port. This night is was the setting for a theatrical experience.
2. We found ourselves in 2118, after the great deletion. What were we remembering? We didn’t know. What we had left was the surface ideas, of poppies and heroes, a game show run by Captain Remembrance with Miss Remember 2117 and this year’s champion, the Unknown Wrestler. (Cast members scattered through the crowd reacted warmly to all this, except when Electra, the AI assistant failed to give us answers).
3. We found ourselves in 2068, still after the great deletion. But some memories had been recovered and the DNA had been used to re-create some old soldiers whose history had been forgotten. Tommy, a WW1 soldier, vulgar, woman-chasing, ignorant of his fate was created, but he glitched out leaving us still ignorant (soldiers and others joined us at various times, telling bits of stories or simply going about their business).
4. We found ourselves in 1918, and also in the intermission, with a hog roast and a bar, and the toilets, and also a brass band playing old favourites, and the singer telling us how glad she is that our boys will be back with us soon. There was a tea party, and wandering people, and also puppet seagulls causing trouble. Then we were told to go back to villages; the flu had broken out. (“Marvellous weather we’re having,” I was greeted by one of the cast. “It’s absolutely bully,” I said. I’m down with the period slang lads.)
5. We found ourselves back in our various villages and four moving stages gave us one scene stories about various aspects of life after the war, and how it changed everything. The seagulls were back, and there was a return to the idea of memory here and there. (Punch and Judy were on one of the moving stages and Judy worked as a medium brought back the spirit of Tommy, again)
6. We found ourselves in 1920 and the King and the Queen and a General and a Vicar are all discussing if this Unknown Warrior thing is a good idea. Does it remember the sacrifice or does it glorify the horror? Then comes the coffin. We find ourselves in 2018 and there’s songs and interpretive dance and soldiers, and no answers to the question, What is Remembrance? (We do find out what has been in the barrels the soldiers have been rolling about everywhere we’ve gone.)
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