FOLLOWING a sold-out UK tour last year and a critically-acclaimed hit run at the Arts Theatre in the West End, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s satirical play The Wipers Times will once again tour this autumn and is arriving at The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham on November 13-18. 

This stage adaptation of the award-winning BBC film, tells the true and extraordinary story of the satirical newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the Somme, interspersed with comic sketches and spoofs from the vivid imagination of those on the front line.

In a bombed out building during the First World War in the Belgian town of Ypres (mispronounced Wipers by British soldiers), two officers discover a printing press and create a newspaper for the troops. 

Far from being a sombre journal about life in the trenches they produced a resolutely cheerful, subversive and very funny newspaper designed to lift the spirits of the men on the frontline.

Defying enemy bombardment, gas attacks and the disapproval of many of the top Brass, The Wipers Times rolled off the press for two years and was an extraordinary tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

The Wipers Times is directed by Caroline Leslie and produced by Bob Benton and David Parfitt. 

It is a collaboration between Trademark Touring and The Watermill Theatre.

Visit everymantheatre.org.uk for full details and tickets.