A powerful and poignant drama based on a real-life story opens at The King’s Theatre in Portsmouth tomorrow.

On the eve of the First World War the young men of Accrington hear Kitchener’s call for a new army and become the smallest town in England to raise a Pals Volunteer Brigade.

When they arrive in France, the brutal reality of the trenches is beyond anything they were prepared for. And back home among the women they leave behind – their mothers, wives, daughters, lovers – nothing can ever be the same again.

Peter Whelan’s deeply humane play, dramatises the lives of ordinary people caught up in historical events. Funny, intimate and moving, The Accrington Pals charts the fortunes of a close-knit community on the brink of change.

Presented by One Off productions the plays runs from Thursday, November 20 to Saturday, November 22.