THIS weekend, Ilminster Warehouse’s resident young dramatists present their original play giving a snapshot of the impact the First World War had on a small Somerset town.

Encore Youth Theatre is staging two performances of ‘Letters Home’ – one is at 7pm on Saturday and the other is at 3pm on Sunday.

Split into two acts, the play tells the stories of the wives, sisters, brothers and children of the men of the town serving in a Pals regiment on the front in France.

In the second half, audience members will be taken up to the scene on the frontline to meet the soldiers who are going ‘over the top’ the next day.

The play’s title comes from the fact that the soldiers are writing letters home which they hope their loved ones will never have to receive.

Encore members, aged 13 and over, have turned to the Great War poets, watched TV and cinema extracts, read books and took a day trip to London to see 'What the Women Did', to inform their work.

An Encore Youth Theatre spokesman said: “We hope people will come and see our small but heartfelt tribute to the men at the front and their families at home.”

Tickets to see Letters Home cost £4.50 from the Lanes Garden Shop in Ilminster, or on 07943-779880.