Christmas on the front: Mother Road Theatre Company resumes productions with 'All Is Calm'
Dec. 18—"All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914" puts a human face on war.
Reemerging from the pandemic, Mother Road Theatre Company will perform the play on multiple nights in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
"This is our first show coming back after COVID," said Julia Thudium, artistic director. "It's only one hour long. But it is so packed with amazing music. It's based on the true story of what happened in World War I."
In 1914, thousands of men put down their guns and left their trenches to meet their enemies in No Man's Land. They exchanged gifts of tobacco, rum and chocolates; even photographs of love ones. They sang songs, played a game of soccer, and buried each other's dead.
It all started with "Silent Night."
"Everybody thought they were going to be home for Christmas," Thudium said. "They didn't even have helmets then. They were literally 30 yards away from the Germans."
"A German soldier jumped up and started singing 'Silent Night' and a Brit joined him. For one day, they stopped fighting."
Mother Road last staged the play in pre-COVID 2019.
"It's a cappella music," Thudium added. "They sing without any accompaniment. There's something about a cappella music — especially one gender choral music — that sticks to your bones and resonates. It's just raw."
Cast with 15 actors, the theater planned to perform the work before war broke out in the Middle East.
"There's something about this that says that peace is possible," Thudium said.
