Eisemann Center Presents "All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914"

Eisemann Center Presents All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 on Tuesday, November 29 in the Hill Performance Hall. With words and songs drawn from the era, All Is Calm recalls the remarkable and spontaneous World War I truce between Allied and German forces in No Man’s Land over Christmas 1914. This moving ode to peace was created by Theater Latté Da’s acclaimed artistic director Peter Rothstein and features Cantus, one of America’s finest vocal ensembles, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach.

All Is Calm relives an astounding moment in history when Allied and German soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the holiday together by trading carols, sharing food and drink, playing soccer and burying the dead. In some places the truce lasted only a night, in others it endured until New Year’s Day. This dramatic re-telling contains actual quotes and excerpts from letters written by thirty World War I figures brought to life by actors and interspersed with song.

Cantus beautifully weaves a tapestry of sound, drawing from patriotic tunes, trench songs, medieval Scottish ballads and carols from England, Wales, France and Germany which take on new depths in the context of warfare. Music, an important part of life in the trenches, helped create a context that inspired the truce. All Is Calm opens with a set of carols arranged by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams for his own battalion.

Rothstein, one of the Twin Cities’ premier directors, worked five years to develop All Is Calm. He recalls, “I wanted to tell the story in their words, so I created the drama primarily through found text including letters, official war documents, autobiographies, World War I poetry, grave stone inscriptions and even an old radio broadcast. I was able to spend time along the Western Front and conduct extensive research in Brussels, Ieper, Paris and London. It was incredibly powerful to stand on the very spot where this extraordinary happening took place. For decades, the Christmas truce was considered a romantic fable, however there is no doubt thousands of courageous men took part.”