As befits such hugely resonant and emotive subject matter, National Theatre Wales’ large scale, site – specific production was a highly vivid and ultimately numbing experience.

Owen Shears’ play takes the audience on a journey. It begins matter –of - factly by outlining the situation surrounding the battle: the ill – prepared soldiers of the 38th Welsh Division who would seek to capture Mametz Wood from the battle-hardened Lehr regiment during the first battle of the Somme in 1916 ending in victory despite enormous losses.

The audience then moves to a converted barn - a theatrical space in which the reality of the trenches and of the main characters’ lives, loves and ever increasing trepidation are developed through dialogue, letters and the poetry of 2 poets – David Jones and LlewellynWyn Griffith . The words of two other great World War 1 poets who also fought on the Somme (Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves) also featured.

Much of this is narrated by the figure of the older Llewellyn Wyn Griffith, who survived the conflict. His telling of the nightmare that he will never escape is movingly done by Michael Elwyn. Also superimposed on the action is the figure of Albert Einstein whose interventions tell of the contemporaneous development of the Theory of Relativity – juxtaposing the huge technological and scientific advances alongside the bestial barbarity of the war. The final chapter involved the audience following the soldiers ‘over the top’ and into a clearing in the wood. Here the harrowing final chapter was played out through movement, dialogue , poetry, visual images and music (the use of Bach’s St.Mathew Passion was particularly arresting) as the battle reached its conclusion under a canopy of trees which held vast photographs of the fresh faced young men.

And as dusk fell on the ancient woodland and the silent audience sat transfixed it was as if the elements were in tune with the tragedy as the drizzle gradually became rain. It was all somehow apt.