Christmas Eve 1914 by Charles Olivier
Full closure…I am not a history buff in the slightest. Not really a heavy focus of mine because, frankly, it’s bloody depressing. However, I find myself compelled to visit various topics for research point. This ALWAYS leads me to do even more research when I find the topic interesting. I believe that would be, yet, another example of hyperfocus. And that’s how I came across this Audible Original! No, seriously, watch this…
See, I already had an Audible subscription and loving every bit of it. I was also creating a “great war” for my space opera that I was working on for some time now. Just some details here and there because I have a few series that require my immediate attention. Anyway, I decided to look up a few great wars of history to gather some inspiration. Take a wild guess where this is going. Yep, this led me to the World War I’s Wikipedia page.
I read what I needed to know and then some. Not enough to make an expert but enough to get the clear picture. And, then, I read the literature and works that were inspired by the war. Christmas Eve 1914 was, of course, one of them but a completely different approach was taken. See, the original author and, later, director of the radio play decided to focus on Christmas truce between the British and German soldiers on no man’s land on Christmas Eve. Notice I said soldiers, not officials. Very important.
The play was created by the author but it was directed by Dawn Prestwich with a phenomenal cast. They even did an exceptional job with the sound effects and musical scores that gave the radio play life. It was humorous at times but didn’t hold back on the pain and drama of war. You could literally how tired the soldiers were and how desperate they were for a break. A moment of happiness and peace. Especially on Christmas Eve.
This is an A+ quality of work. Instead of turning it into a history lesson, they took a more intimate approach and focus the audience attention on a small group of soldiers and guided the narrative from there. Truly a masterpiece and a great choice for my first Audible Original.
