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A new play tells the tragic story of a Welsh choir which lost all but one of its members during the carnage of the First World War.

'Dinner with Otto' by Tom George Carroll, from Gorsedd near Holywell, brings together several heart-wrenching stories from WWI, including that of Lance-Corporal Samuel Evans, from Rhos, who was the sole survivor of the choir of the 17 battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

Mr Carroll, originally from Liverpool, researched for more than a year before starting to write the hard-hitting play which shines a light not just on the monstrosities of war but how surviving soldiers’ lives were irrevocably shattered once they arrived home.

He says several of the events and experiences his characters undergo are based on real life events and biographies like those of the Lost Choir, young hopefuls who competed in the Wales National Eisteddfod before being posted to fight in the French trenches.

Two years later, at the 1917 National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead September 1917, the choir was again called to the stage but this time it consisted of only one surviving member, Lance-Corporal Evans as tragically all the other choir members had been slaughtered in the war.

(Image: Mandy Jones)

Poignantly, it was also the eisteddfod where the tragic poet Hedd Wyn, or Ellis Evans from Trawsfynydd, was honoured posthumously and the bardic chair draped in black after he was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele.

Mr Carroll, who writes under the name Tom George, said: “Hedd Wyn and those choir members made the ultimate sacrifice. It was important to me to make my play as realistic as possible, so I undertook extensive research on the events of the time, the lives of soldiers returning to north Wales, the expectations that were made of them, experiences they went through.

“I wanted to enable the audience to see my characters, albeit entirely fictional, as real people, to accept the play’s narrative as being feasible, completely believable.”

“It’s a tough watch but compelling. I aimed to make people feel like they wanted to turn away but couldn’t because they needed to see the story through to its conclusion."

(Image: Mandy Jones)

The two-act play opens a century ago in March 1919 amid a scene of troops coming home from war, numbed, physically and mentally paralysed, shaken to the core.

Mr Carroll added: "They were left unaided to fight for survival against a tide of unrealistic expectations, engulfed by blithe platitudes, their already broken spirits drowned by new unforgiving pressures all around them.

“It is made all the more relevant as we commemorate 100 years since its setting.”

Proceeds from the play will be going to The Royal British Legion North Wales and Woody’s Lodge in Colwyn Bay which was set up in memory of Royal Marine Paul “Woody” Woodland, of South Wales who lost his life in a training exercise before he was due to return for a second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Dinner with Otto, presented by TGC Productions is at Rhyl Little Theatre on Friday and Saturday, September 13 and 14 and at The Stiwt, Wrexham, on September 27, at 7.30pm.

To book online visit www.skiddle.com or here