Novelist Sebastian Faulks’ bestselling World War One love story, Birdsong, turned 30 recently - and to mark the occasion, a new stage version, penned by Rachel Wagstaff with Faulks’ approval, is currently touring the UK. Max Bowden of EastEnders fame stars in the production, and What’s On recently caught up with him to find out more about the show...

Sebastian Faulks’ great love story, Birdsong, visits Birmingham this month, taking audiences into the trenches of the First World War.

It is a daily battle for survival for the characters, and not least for British miner turned tunneller Jack Firebrace, who spends hours in darkness digging below the enemy trenches.
In the role of the doughty Jack is actor Max Bowden, perhaps best known for playing Phil Mitchell’s son Ben for five years in long-running BBC TV soap EastEnders.

But it’s not the first time Max has trod the boards in Birdsong - he also played the role of Private Tipper when the production toured in 2015. So why did he want to return to the show a decade later?

“It was partly the collaboration of an original team but also the fact the team was open for change and adaptation,” he says. “I think Rachel Wagstaff, the director, has really nailed it this time round. 

“On reading it, it just felt more resonant to me. I think we’re looking at a time now when we’re in a world in which war is looming in almost every continent, and World War One was supposed to be ‘the war to end all wars’. It was the Great War - and yet here we are. So I think there was something that drew me to being able to relate to that story in a modern setting as well as focusing on the history of the piece.”

The character of Jack particularly resonates with Max.

“Jack reminds me a lot of my grandfather. He was very much a Jack the Lad; he was a joke-teller who enjoyed making people laugh, but he also had that working-class edge to him; those old-school morals and that care for everybody around him. I think Jack represents a timely male, who has that kind of ‘keep calm and carry on’ outlook. This was something that my grandfather represented, and there was an element of wanting to play Jack because of that.”

Portraying a tunneller is a significant challenge for Max.

“Physically, it’s a gruelling role. I’m spending a lot of time on the ground and crawling through. The sappers, as they were, would crawl through three-foot tunnels, so it’s keeping me fit, that’s for sure. 

“And obviously there’s the emotional stack of telling any sort of war story. There were several figures that stayed silent after the First World War because what they had seen and what they had done was enough to make you shudder. So I think the emotional journey of Jack Firebrace and a lot of the characters is harrowing but real and resonant of these people.”

Published in 1993, Faulks’ novel quickly became a bestseller, with sales of more than three million copies worldwide and frequent placings in ‘best modern fiction’ lists. As well as telling the story of British soldier Stephen Wraysford and his love for a French woman named Isabelle Azaire, it also vividly recreates life in the trenches, highlighting the importance of friendship in the face of danger.

“What makes Birdsong unique is that it never glorifies war,” says Max. “It focuses on the themes that surround humanity during crisis, which are hope, love, trust, honour. It’s a love story set against the backdrop of one of the most cruel and brutal things that has ever taken place in human history, yet the story that drives us through is one of love. It shows the human form at both its most beautiful and most toxic.

“I think its message is still so apparent and is close to home. We watch this three-hour play about destruction and brutality but also love, and actually, the thing that kept everyone going was love, not the destruction. So if we focus and hone in on the things which keep humanity burning, this brilliant light of hope, then wars will hopefully be slightly more thought out, less impulsive.

“This isn’t just a play, it’s an experience of humanity. Art provides an accessibility to the history of our country in a way which conversation often can’t. We can gather the facts, but we can’t gather the true moments of emotion which these men and women lived through. I think it’s imperative for us as individuals to understand our ancestry, to understand how they lived, survived and fought to allow us to live the life we live today. Birdsong is a perfect representation of that.”

Max is keen to bring as much veracity to the role as possible. Not only is he sporting a very dapper World War One moustache, but he’s also worked hard to try and understand the experience of fighting on the Front.

“I think research is the key to any good performance, so I spent a lot of time in the Imperial War Museum. I also like exploring with art, so art galleries and finding these moments of art that sort of represent an image of a sort of subjectivity. So something I look at and think ‘God, that’s relatable to how Tipper or Firebrace would feel in this specific circumstance’. 

“I try to find these tableaux to draw some emotional connection, but on top of that, it’s very much trying to watch archive footage of people at the time. Humanity has evolved so much, even since then, and the way we speak and the way we listen and interact is very different from how it was then. So trying to gauge the time comes from watching archive footage and reading.”

Alongside art and history, Max has also investigated the writing and music of the time.

“I read a lot of poetry, particularly Wilfred Owen, but also I’m a sucker for music. So as the show began, I would listen to It’s A Long Way To Tipperary and Hold Your Hand Out Naughty Boy, with orchestras playing the tunes. It all helps to create impressions of those experiences.”

The Birdsong tour marks the first time Max has appeared in any of Birmingham’s theatres, but he has made a previous debut in the city - on the pitch at Villa Park!

“I played in a football match there, raising money for a local charity. It was fantastic. It’s one of the oldest grounds in the world, and I’m a huge football fan, so it was a delight. There were a few old players playing; a mix of celebrities and old pros so that it was fair. We won by one goal!”

Feature by Diane Parkes

Birdsong shows at The Rep, Birmingham, from Monday 27 January to Saturday 1 February