Hearts WWI tale takes audience from tears to laughter and back at Edinburgh's Fringe

Sport and theatre don’t often combine well but A War of Two Halves is most definitely an exception.

Performed at various locations around Tynecastle Park as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the show tells a story which appeals not only to supporters of Heart of Midlothian FC.

The club’s 1914 team were on the verge of winning the Scottish league title when they volunteered en masse to fight in World War I. They were joined by players and fans from Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Dunfermline Athletic, Hibernian, St Bernards and East Fife. Led by Sir George McCrae into battle, they became known as McCrae’s Battalion.

This Is My Story Productions have recreated the tale, beautifully written by Paul Beeson and Tim Barrow, and directed by Bruce Strachan. It flips from emotional tear-jerker to laugh-out-loud funny in an instant as the audience is led around Tynecastle.

Starting off in the 1874 Supporters’ Bar, there are scenes inside the dressing-room, then pitch-side before an extremely moving re-enactment of a World War I trench in France. Fittingly, the performance ends in the stadium’s memorial garden.

Hearts are rightly proud of their history and the sacrifice of so many of their players in World War I. Seven of manager John McCartney's first team would not return from battle – James Speedie, Tom Gracie, Duncan Currie, Harry Wattie, Ernest Ellis, James Boyd and John Allan were killed.

Others came back with life-changing injuries, some were unable to walk unaided let alone resume football.

It is harrowing viewing but definitely one to see even for those who are not football devotees. Tickets are available here: A War of Two Halves.