Carrie Marks 70th War Anniversary with 5p Tickets

Today’s 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War – 3 September 2009 – will be commemorated at the West End’s Apollo Theatre with wartime pricing for tonight’s performance of Carrie’s War. For one night only, tickets for the stage adaptation of Nina Bawden’s best-selling novel about the wartime evacuation will be available for the price of one shilling – or 5 pence in today’s money.

To get even more into the spirit of the historic occasion, theatregoers are invited to come along dressed in period costume. 1940s vintage attire or military uniform. Carrie’s War, which opened at the Apollo on 24 June (previews from 18 June), finishes its limited West End season on 12 September 2009.

Carrie Willow and her brother Nick are wartime evacuees, billeted to the mining valleys in Wales with old Mr Evans and his kind sister Lou. At Christmas, they’re sent to Druid’s Bottom to collect a goose from Mrs Gotobed where they meet Hepzibah, the witch and eccentric Mister Johnny, and hear about the curse of an ancient skull.

Nina Bawden based her 1973 novel on her own childhood experiences as an evacuee in Wales during the War and it has been adapted twice for television by the BBC. The book has been adapted twice for television by the BBC, most recently in 2004. This stage adaptation, by Emma Reeves for Novel Theatre, premiered in 2006 at the Lilian Baylis Theatre at Sadler’s Wells. Reeves’ previous credits include the Novel adaptation of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women, which had a West End run at the Duchess Theatre in 2004.

In the new staging of Carrie’s War, Sarah Edwardson is Carrie, alongside Prunella Scales, Kacey Ainsworth, Amanda Symonds and James Beddard, who also appeared in the 2004 screen version. Andrew Loudon directs.