A violin made to commemorate 100 years since the start of World War I, named The Wilfred Owen Violin, will be used during a Christmas Eve performance of Phil Porter’s new play The Christmas Truce at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford.
The play is inspired by real events and features soldiers along the Western Front leaving their trenches to meet their enemies in No Man’s Land to talk, exchange gifts and play football.
The violin will also be used during the RSC’s annual Christmas carol concert in Holy Trinity Church on Monday 22 December.
The violin is made from wood taken from the branch of a sycamore tree within the grounds of Craiglockhart, a hospital in Edinburgh. The hospital was a military psychiatric hospital during the war for the treatment of shell-shocked officers.
One of its most well-known patients was the war poet Wilfred Owen, after whom the violin is named.
The violin was made by Steve Burnett from Edinburgh. He said, “for some time I’ve had in mind to make a violin/fiddle to honour the memory of Wilfred Owen and his generation. Now is the most fitting time to realise this idea, with the centenary of the beginning of the Great War.
“Both Owen and Siegfried Sassoon convalesced at Craiglockhart when it was a military hospital, so the first choice of wood for this violin was from one of the trees standing within the grounds.”
Bruce O’Neil, the RSC’s head of music, said, “the Wilfred Owen violin is not only a fine musical instrument in itself but also a powerful symbol of regeneration and, literally, an instrument of peace.
“Featuring the violin in our Christmas Eve performance of Christmas Truce will contribute to what I’m sure will be a highly charged and emotional event, in ways both tangible and impalpable.”
The Christmas Truce draws on the story of Warwickshire Regiment soldier and cartoonist Capt Bruce Bairnsfather who was an electrical engineer at the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
The Wilfred Owen Violin project aims to engage with young people through music. It also acts as a reminder of the horrors of war and of the importance of reconciliation and understanding across all nationalities and faiths.
An annual violin champion will be chosen from students within the Edinburgh Napier University music department during the next four commemorative years and the violin will be made available on loan to others musicians for concert and educational work.
The Christmas Truce runs in Stratford from 29 November until 31 January.