'Silent Night' in No Man's Land

It was a moment of sobriety, initiated in a war of drunken destruction. I’m referring to the Christmas Truce in 1914 when British and German soldiers—and in some cases French, Belgian, Austrians and Russians—put down their guns and climbed up out of their trenches to celebrate Christmas together. They sang “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht, Silent Night, Holy Night.”

They shook hands, shared food and drink, played soccer, and exchanged souvenirs. A British machine gunner with barbering skills gave a German soldier a much needed haircut.

They also retrieved their dead, caught in the withering fire in the barbed-wire strewn battlefield.

And when it was over, they returned to their muddy trenches, and, commanded by their officers, picked up their guns again. By the end of the war in 1918, their positions on the Western Front had barely changed. World War I, the Great War as it was called, had devastated Europe, killing over fifteen million and causing immeasurable destruction, hunger and disease.

The story of the Christmas Truce is being told and sung in the production this month of “All Is Calm” by our own Greater Boston Stage Company (ends Dec. 23). If you haven’t yet seen it, please do. The performance by ten male actors is sobering, yet hopeful.

For me, attending the play last week, two things stand out. First, the individual roles played, expressed in the accents, dress, positions and letters written home. From all parts of the British Empire, the soldiers reveal their diverse backgrounds. In several scenes, some of them don spiked helmets and became German soldiers.

Second, and the most impressive, is the music—ten men singing a capella: It's A Long Way to Tipperary, Angels We Have Heard on High, Good King Wenceslas, O Holy Night, Auld Lang Syne and more. The arrangements are beautifully adapted to the play’s moods and themes. The harmonies are exquisite.

At home that night I thought about the play, how it’s more than a theatrical performance. It’s a profound metaphor for our collective lives today. In a polarized and often uncivil society, we too move through our trenches, bearing our prejudices and dislikes like packs on our backs. We are told whom to despise, whom to hate.

No Man’s Land lies between us. Who has the courage to lay down their weapons and embrace our common humanity? Who has the courage to reach out in friendship and peace?