Shelter

"A very moving play, extremely well written. There wasn't a dry eye in the house". Karen Woodland, NDFA

‘Shelter’ is set in Manchester during the blitz.  Will and Mary, a First World War Veteran and his much younger wife, respond to the air raid siren and enter into the Anderson shelter at the bottom of their garden. 

It is clear that there is tension between them; Mary is trying to make conversation and Will is not responding very much as he cleans his shoes.  They begin to argue.  Mary feels resented by Will for what has happened to their son, Charlie.  Will says he does not resent her but he just has nothing to say to her.  Will remains closed off to Mary.  She tries to talk about happier times but Will, whilst slightly more responsive, is still quiet and shut down. Mary, pleading with Will to talk about Charlie rests her hand on his shoulder.  Will flinches and moves away, pleading with her to stop talking about him.

Will begins to talk through his experiences in the First World War.  These are stories that Mary has never heard.  He explains how he felt lifeless after coming home from the war but that Mary and Charlie brought him back to life.  He talks about how he wanted to protect Charlie from all sorrows and pain by enjoying the little things throughout his childhood such as birdsong or painting, but that the Second World War had loomed and he had not been able to “shelter” the now teenage Charlie from it. He goes into detail as to how he tried to get Charlie to register as a conscientious objector by going through a trial.  He had even written the words for Charlie’s statement to help him accomplish this.  He believed this would stop Charlie having to go to the front line. However, Will then insinuates that Mary has something to do with Charlie being sent away.

Mary, feeling the weight of guilt and sorrow, explains that when she was a teenager during the First World War, she had been with her father on the bus one day when a woman had handed her father a white feather – a symbol of cowardice.  She had pushed this woman and had screamed that her father was deaf and was, therefore, unable to fight.  Her father had then committed suicide from the societal pressure of not being able to fight due to an unseen disability. 

She explains that Charlie had approached Mary to say he wanted to fight and didn’t want anyone to think him a coward.  Mary had told Charlie to write a letter explaining to Will that he wanted to fight for his country and that this is why he would not be registering as a conscientious objector.  Mary explains that Charlie didn’t know how to tell his father about his intentions because Will “took over”.  Mary says that once the letter was written and Will was waiting at the trial, she took Charlie to the train and waved him off as he went to join the fight.

Will says that he has never heard any of this and that he understands more as to why Charlie went to fight and why Mary “betrayed” him.  Will then tries to make things better with Mary by talking about the day Charlie was born and they both share a joke about Charlie nearly being named after the doctor.

The play ends with Mary and Will holding each other promising to stand by each other in their unbearable grief at losing their one joy, their son, Charlie.

All three characters have tried to shelter one another from a situation that is, ultimately, out of their control. Can Mary and Will rebuild their marriage amidst the crumbling debris of war?