Step below the iconic red steeples on 10th St in Milwaukee to enter the world of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. The Historic Calvary Presbyterian Church is a perfect backdrop for the century-old (yet still so familiar) story of when battle stopped, for a blink of time, on the cold trenches of No Man's Land in WWI.
Documented through reports, letters, and even some grainy photographs, the true story of the Christmas Truce takes place in Belgium along the Western Front. Brought together by calling over the trenches, humanity superseded nationality just long enough for gifts to be exchanged, games to be played, and songs to be sung. All is Calm takes us right into the heat of the moment, where cigars and jam are currency and music is the universal language.
This is a performance unlike any other in the city right now. Featuring a powerful ensemble of masculine voices, the story is told through song. From Christmas carols to drinking shanties - anything to keep the body and soul warm on a cold December night - the cast ebbs and flows as one in an uprising of harmony, both musical and personal.
The show is a feat of excellence for the cast. Each performer remains onstage for the entire duration, juggling accents and characters while executing immensely difficult music, entirely a capella. Under the guidance of music director Paula Foley Tillen, the chorus is expertly balanced and as dynamic in tone as the reality of small joys found within warfare.
Gazing out at the stage and up at the Cathedral ceiling, Antishadows Theatrical Design considers every inch of the space with their stellar lighting design. With clever usage of textures and distance, time passes seamlessly within the hour-long piece, and while we never leave the Western Front within the show, the audience can feel how the atmosphere permanently changed by the truce.
After the holidays, in time, battle erupted again and the unprecedented laying of weapons was discouraged to repeat. In our world today, the continued somber inescapability of warfare leaves audiences in quiet reflection. However, this show does not dismay - Josh Pohja's direction effectively erases the barriers between soldiers and instead highlights their identities as fellow men. All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 is a beam of hope, deeply aware of the impact of kindness and camaraderie in the face of injustice and cruelty. Vanguard Productions continues their run of this powerful story through December 22nd.