{"id":3241,"date":"2016-08-25T14:40:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T14:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?3241"},"modified":"2016-08-25T14:40:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T14:40:17","slug":"the-show-must-go-on-battle-of-the-somme-play-to-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/the-show-must-go-on-battle-of-the-somme-play-to-open\/","title":{"rendered":"The show must go on! Battle of the Somme play to open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Greater Game, a new play, opens its curtains at The Southwark Playhouse in London next month as part of The Royal British Legion's Battle of the Somme centenary commemorations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Produced by Michael Head, this show will be telling the story of the First World War footballing heroes from Clapton Orient Football Club. It's going to be on for four weeks at the Playhouse and it's expected to get an excellent turnout.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Not only is this play a&nbsp;part of the Legion's commemorations, the Armed Forces charity has also sponsored the opening of the play itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The story follows 41 members of the football club's team, who bravely fought at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and it will star Nick Hancock, Charlie Clements and Danny Walters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who are keen readers, you'll be pleased to know that the play and overall performance is based on the book 'They Took the Lead' by Stephen Jenkins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Not only does the play pay homage to the Somme, but it also forms part of the Legion's Sports Remembers campaign, which looks back on all the athletes, footballers, clubs and teams and Olympians who served in Pals Battalions during the battle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The losses of the people who fought in these battalions were felt hugely in the club and community levels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Digging deep, the Legion has found incredible stories of the sportsmen who were at the Somme. The Sport Remembers tales span across all levels of athletic capabilities, including stories of sprinters, cricketers and motorbiking, among others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Greater Game will be running from 15th September to 16th October, Monday to Saturday every week.&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ADNFCR-2867-ID-801824199-ADNFCR\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.directnews.co.uk\/feedtrack\/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2867&amp;itemid=801824199\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new play to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme is set to open<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The show must go on! Battle of the Somme play to open - Forces Penpals GB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/the-show-must-go-on-battle-of-the-somme-play-to-open\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The show must go on! 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Before this pursuing a career in the forces was more or less impossible. Recently, though, veterans have joined the Royal British Legion\u2019s first LGBTQ branch which supports ex-service personnel who are members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Forces news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Forces news","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/category\/forces-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1205,"url":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/concert-to-celebrate-royal-british-legions-90th-anniversary\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":5},"title":"Concert to celebrate Royal British Legion&#8217;s 90th anniversary","author":"Forces Penpals","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Individuals can show their support for troops by attending a concert on the Isle of Man.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Support Soldiers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Support Soldiers","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/category\/support-soldiers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}