Please join us for special event including music by Ravel, Britten, Arvo Pärt, Oliver Knussen and Still in this world, a new piece by Miriam Mackie reflecting on life in Britain during the last war. Still in this World brings together two people living through the last war in Britain. Mark Holloway grew up in the shadow of the 1914-18 war. At 18 he signed a Peace Pledge Union card, stating: “I renounce war, and never again will I support or sanction another.” However, he joined the Navy in 1940, to experience the realities of fighting. A turning point came when hearing of thousands of Germans killed in the Channel after the RAF had set them alight with petrol, intercepting a reported invasion attempt. He wrote, “I could not rejoice”, and resigned on grounds of conscientious objection. Detainment, discharge, a Tribunal, and a successful appeal against its decision followed. Mark said he would have killed to protect a loved one or to assassinate Hitler, but that war itself “annihilates the cause”, and so advocated equitable solutions to international problems.
Nella Last lived in Barrow-in-Furness, which experienced heavy bombing, with her husband William, and sons Arthur and Cliff, who joined the RAF. She worked for the WVS and the Red Cross, where she was known for her constant good humour and care of others. Her diaries (written for the Mass Observation project) provide a vivid account of daily life during wartime. Nella was a fierce patriot, and her anguish alongside others’ losses of home and family was acute. Candidly describing dreams of carnage and suffering, she empathises with German people’s similar experiences. Nella was played by Victoria Wood in Housewife,49, a 2006 Granada film, directed by Gavin Millar.
Nella will be played by Jan Goodkin. Mark will be played by Vincent Lawlor.
A note about the image: this comes from a series of artworks by Jan Goodkin contemplating past lives, loss and survival, the source materials of which have an intense biographical connection. This scaled-down shirt collar bears the text of a Yiddish song she found inscribed by hand in a book which had belonged to members of her family in Poland, many of whom perished in the Holocaust.
All proceeds will be going to the St James' Restoration Appeal