To mark the final centenary year of the Great War of 1914-18, Canberra Rep has chosen to stage Joan Littlewood's satirical musical entertainment, Oh, What a Lovely War!.

Director, Chris Baldock has wisely chosen to stay true to tradition by observing the style of the original 1966 Theatre Workshop production at Littlewood's Stratford East theatre. The cast of 12 talented young performers burst onto the patriotic set of a bespattered Union Jack and a proscenium arch, plastered with wartime posters and the royal crest.

Raised at the rear of the stage against a sky painted backcloth, musical director, Ewan conducts the fine musicians of the 37th Royal Repertory Mounted Artillery Band. As the band plays the popular melodies of the wartime years, "The Merry Roosters" Pierrot troupe take out their Pierrot costumes from the box at the centre of the painted flag and begin to warm up in preparation for their energy charged performance of the songs and scenes of the era.

What follows is a precisely marshalled demonstration of outstanding ensemble work by the company, inspired by Baldock's directorial inventiveness, Ewan's excellent musical direction and Ylaria Rogers' lively and appropriate choreography.

In the tradition of the emerging theatre in education movement of the early 60s, and drawing on the inspiration of the political theatre of German director and playwright, Bertolt Brecht, Oh What A Lovely War! is a playful display of Commedia del Arte slapstick, music hall, circus, ventriloquism, marionette movement, wartime melodies and comical stage business. Baldock keeps the pace rollicking along with occasional moments of sentiment in the singing of Roses of Picardy or a more measured dramatic rhythm in the meeting of the Germans and the British on No Man's Land at Christmas.

At times, youthful exuberance and frenetic pacing sacrifices diction and moments of stillness and reflection for the sheer ebullience of rapid fire action. In contrast to the satirical absurdity of the stage business, projected photography and statistics serve to remind us of the true horrors of war and its futility. A soldier lies contorted and lifeless on the muddy battlefield. Another slide tells us that two and a half million lives of young men are lost on the Western Front alone. The absurd depiction of the inept generals on the stage is contrasted by the real consequences of the follies of war as shown in the images projected onto the set. In Act Two of Littlewood's intently researched play, a reading of George Bernard Shaw's letter to Prime Minister David Lloyd-George falls on the deaf ears of soldiers, while the audience receives the true impact of the war upon human life and society.

Sadly, and in the light of wars that continue to tear people and nations apart, Oh What A Lovely War! and Canberra Rep's respectful production reinforce the observation that "all we learn from history is that we never learn from history." It is a sober lesson emerging from the purposeful entertainment of Rep's Oh What A lovely War!