‘Are there any more recruits?’ - British theatre and the recruitment drive, 1914–1915

This paper argues that British theatre-makers played an important role in recruiting men to the armed forces in 1914 and 1915. It identifies a progression from the use of extra-dramatic interventions in the first weeks of the war, to the blurring of boundaries between stage and auditorium, drawing on plays such as In Time of War, A Call to Arms and England Expects. It ends with an examination of the messages promulgated in these recruiting dramas. Examining a range of plays addressing both men’s reluctance to enlist, and women’s reluctance to let their men enlist, the paper argues that recruiting plays offered a far more sophisticated response to the experience of enlisting than has previously been recognized.