Pierrot troupes

A concert party, also called a Pierrot troupe, is the collective name for a group of entertainers, or Pierrots, popular in Britain during the first half of the 20th century. The variety show given by a Pierrot troupe was called a Pierrot show. 

Concert parties were travelling shows of songs and comedy, often put on at the seaside and opening with a Pierrot number.

               

ENTERTAINMENT DURING WW1

Entertainment during world war 1, included radio technology but also a large focus on the home and family togetherness.Most of the division concert parties mirrored the Pierrot troupes that performed in the music halls and at the end of the pier at seaside resorts. The standard dress of ruffles and skull cap was thus a common feature of military concert parties. Many of the troupes were run by ex-pros and it was they who, through their theatrical connections, obtained the requisite costumes and props.

The assembling of a cast was a constant problem, and it was difficult to maintain a permanent theatre company due to the movement of battalions and the ever-increasing casualty list. The losses were not always attributable to the enemy; on one occasion the concert party producer was relieved to hear that the baritone had been released from ‘clink’ in time to do the show.

THEATRE DURING WW1

The usual location for entertainments was at depots and rest camps in the rear, but there was always the YMCA canteen hut situated a short distance behind the front-line trenches. At one end of the hut stood the ubiquitous piano, which was intended as an aid to the singing of hymns at church services – but it was not always light airs or hymns for which it provided accompaniment!

The battalion canteen shows varied in quality. They included crude comedians as well as singers. They were often organised, wrote a reporter, by ‘some grey-haired old member of the permanent staff’ who had a walrus moustache and ‘probably sported ribbons of the Zulu campaign and the Boer War’. He had the unenviable task of acting as Master of Ceremonies at these boisterous and bawdy entertainments.

WORLD WAR 1 !!!

World War I (WWI) was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. More than 9 million combatants were killed: a scale of death impacted by industrial advancements, geographic stalemate and reliance on human wave attacks. It was the fifth-deadliest conflict in world history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.