Shellshock Waterloo East Theatre

The musical Shellshock opens with a talkative young girl called Emily (Ana Martin) fit to burst with excitement at the prospect of her father, a soldier, returning from the front-line in Dhofar, Oman. However, when her father Mark (Peter Willoughby) arrives home he is irritable, short-tempered and clearly traumatised by the brutalities of war that he has witnessed first-hand. The musical charts a family’s struggle to adjust to way that shell-shock can alter a person’s nature as they learn to acknowledge that the father and husband that they once knew has now been replaced by a shadow of his former self.

From the opening number the character of Emily is quickly defined as a chatterbox who enjoys singing, dancing and generally being the centre of her parents’ attention at all times. Emily’s general need to cause a racket clashes with her shell-shocked father’s constant request for quiet. Martin embodies Emily’s precocious nature well and sustains a high energy and extremely externalised performance throughout the piece. At only 14-years-old Martin is clearly a young talent with a strong singing voice, yet as her character lacked any real depth she was unfortunately limited by the material that Tim Thomas had created.

Mark, the other protagonist within the work, was also frustratingly one-dimensional and consequently difficult to connect with emotionally. As with any emotional state I had expected the portrayal of shell-shock to be multifaceted, but instead it was stripped back and Mark appeared to be in a perpetual state of rage throughout the performance. This lack of any character development or range was particularly apparent during his main song during which he simplistically described his emotional state as “too much makes me mad/too much makes me sad”. Considering that shell-shock was the show’s central theme I was disappointed that its depiction lacked any light and shade, and consequently I didn’t feel that deepened my understanding of said topic in any way.

Alongside the main storyline a subplot runs parallel wherein an elderly grandmother recounts her memories of the First World War to her grandson. She reveals the shocking secret that her husband, who suffered from undiagnosed shell-shock, was shot for being a deserter. Personally, I found this narrative thread and the grandmother Ada (who was played brilliantly by Maggie Robson), more intriguing than the main storyline and it was a shame that it was not explored further.

The score contained 14 original songs, of these Robson performed a memorable number entitled ‘I Fell for a Boy in the Band’. Musically the melody was reminiscent of the wartime era and this worked well, but I couldn’t help but feel if Thomas had stuck to this genre throughout the rest of songs would have sounded less like a homogenous mass.

In short Shellshock was a simplistic portrayal of the aftermath of war that left me feeling underwhelmed. Although the concept showed promise, I was left disappointed.

Shellshock is playing at Waterloo East Theatre until 19 April. For tickets and more information please visit the Waterloo East Theatre website.