WHEN author Sebastian Faulks was first asked permission to turn his novel Birdsong into a play, he responded “Why try to make a painting from a sculpture?”, no doubt mindful of some of the good books than have been turned into bad plays.

This current tour is Rachel Wagstaff’s third stage version of Birdsong and it works beautifully as a moving, thrilling piece of theatre in a stunningly good production from director Alastair Whatley and his team.

This really is a team effort where everything – actors, lighting, set and so on – works together to recreate life in and around the tunnels on the Western Front in the 1914-18 war and in 1910 France as British officer Stephen Wraysford remembers his affair with married Isabelle.

The production works because the balance between love and war is neatly established and maintained, so that the horrors of warfare and camaraderie as the soldiers prepare for battle are as convincing as the doomed affair between George and Isabelle.

Victoria Spearing’s set allows scenes both past and present to flow gently one into another without causing the narrative to judder. Sound and light are used to recreate effectively life during both war and peace.

George Banks offers a convincingly tortured portrait of Wraysford, a tormented man torn between love and duty.

Carolin Stoltz adds to the emotional impact as the equally conflicted Isabelle, while Peter Duncan’s Jack Firebrace leads the fighting men as a father facing loss at home and on the battlefield.

  • Until Saturday. Box office 01904-623568 and online yorktheatreroyal.co.uk