Stage: A Farewell To Arms

A Farewell to arms Epic Hemingway brought to life at The Old Market

With the 100th anniversary of WWI so prominent in our minds right now, Ernest Hemingway’s epic novel, set in the war torn Italy of 1913, could not be more appropriate. But how do you translate a work of fiction on such a grandiose scale to the stage? Imitating The Dog have staged all the main elements of the novel’s storyline, and with a company of six performers, have followed its narrative structure. Two play the characters of Frederic and Catherine and the remaining four play multiple roles throughout the story.

Placed in the rehabilitation room of an abandoned and bombed out military hospital, the set is realistic, although the audience is able to see beyond the edges of the set to the off-stage areas and glimpse the supporting structure. In many ways it should read like a film set: real from the inside, but clearly constructed from the outside and edges.

The performance begins with the arrival of the actors. We see moonlight coming through the room’s windows. One of the actors goes to a mains switch and the lights go on, revealing the detail of the setting. We see the rest of the actors enter the stage and start getting ready for the performance. They set up cameras, microphones, projectors, props. They begin selecting costumes. As this is occurring, one of the actors performs the first live voice over taken from the novel’s opening passage: “In the late summer of that year, we lived in a house in the village that looked across the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went down by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees …”

Projections of maps will create the illusion of an animated 3D space. Troops moving, the floor momentarily transformed into a mountain stream; later the walls of the set become a starry Italian night sky; the walls, floor and ceiling shake as you hear and feel the effect of heavy artillery – the use of projection and surround sound technologies giving the space a living and transformative presence. What looks like a derelict space is brought to life in a visually stunning way and prompts important connections to the themes of the novel: how we remember and account for the traumatic experiences of love, war and loss.

Building on the success of previous projects such as Kellerman (2009), The Zero Hour (2012) and Sea Breeze (2013), this takes the Imitating The Dog aesthetic in a new and unique direction – A Farewell to Arms adopts a more open stage scenography, where the actor’s body and live voice enable a direct connection to the force and relevance of Hemingway’s prose.

The Old Market, 27-29 November, 7.30pm, Matinee Sat 2.30pm, 11a Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS, 01273 201801 theoldmarket.com