The Wipers Times, Arts Theatre review - 'dark comedy from the trenches'

You may be having a moment of déjà vu, as Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s new play (which lands in the West End after a UK tour) was previously a BBC film (shown in 2013), and a very fine one too, covering as it does a true story from the First World War.

In the mud and mayhem of Flanders, in a bombed-out building in the Belgian town of Ypres (mis-pronounced Wipers by British Tommies), two officers – Captain Fred Roberts (James Dutton) and Lieutenant Jack Pearson (George Kemp) – discover an abandoned printing-press and have the spiffing idea to create a newspaper for the troops. The Wipers Times was no jingoistic journal – far from it – rather a resolutely subversive and darkly comic newspaper designed to lift the spirits of the men on the frontline. If Private Eye, the satirical news magazine that Hislop has edited since 1986, has a predecessor, then The Wipers Times fits the bill.

The Wipers Times wasn't just a toffs' plaything. As its fame and popularity grew, squaddies became contributors too, and the two officers were greatly aided by Sergeant Tyler (Dan Tetsell), who had been a printer back in civvy street and made the clapped-out printing machines they found work. (Art imitating life here, as any journalist of a certain vintage will attest. If editors were the officers, printers were the NCOs of the hot metal days, and rescued many a squaddie reporter from an egregious error they spotted while compositing the type.)

At the heart of the play is the relentlessly jokey relationship between Roberts and Pearson – neatly contrasted with that of senior officers who were safely away from the frontline. Lt Colonel Howfield (Sam Ducane) – who thinks the newspapermen should be tried for treason – is as humourless as he is clueless about the realities of life in the trenches. “The War is not funny, sir,” he stiffly tells the rather more sanguine General Mitford (Tetsell). “I've a feeling that may be the point,” comes the dry reply.

The rest of cast give great support, with some doubling roles, such as Clio Davies (pictured above), who plays a nurse, a brothel keeper and a do-gooder. The play, which lacks a sense of context and backstory for anyone except Roberts, is however nicely structured, bookended with Roberts' failed attempt at landing a job in Fleet Street after the war. The music allows neat transitions between scenes and the paper's spoof ads (“Are you suffering from optimism?”, “Do you have a drink habit? No? I can help you get one in two days”) are nicely parlayed in the style of music hall songs and comic sketches.

Caroline Leslie's direction could do with a bit more zip, but this is an interesting story engagingly told.

• The Wipers Times is at the Arts Theatre to 5 May
• More theatre reviews on theartsdesk