Sixty-four years ago this Christmas, a group of sick and starving Allied prisoners of war staged an extraordinary adaptation of the pantomime classic Babes in the Wood on the banks of the River Kwai. Their proscenium stage had been built on a sandbar. Audiences watched from a terraced slope. The cast was made up mainly of British officers and other ranks.

Takanun (also known as 223 Kilo) PoW camp on the Thailand-Burma railway was the venue for the premiere of Babes in Thailand on Christmas night 1943. It was staged with the blessing of the Japanese commandant of the camp.

This remarkable piece of theatrical history, together with a host of others concerning PoW camp entertainments, are featured in a book to be published next year, entitled To Keep Going the Spirit. It has been researched and written by Sears A. Eldredge, Professor of Theatre and Dance at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota.

And at the end of May 2008 Professor Eldredge will be one of the guest speakers at a two-day international conference being held at the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire. Organised by the Researching FEPOW History group, the conference is for professional and family historians and anyone else with an interest in researching Far East PoW history. In accepting the invitation Professor Eldredge said, “I am delighted to have this opportunity to share this untold story of entertainments along the Thai-Burma Railway, which the PoWs developed as part of their survival strategy. The quantity and quality of their musical and theatrical productions will come as a revelation.”

One of the original cast members of Babes in Thailand, RAMC medical officer Captain Hugh “Ginger” de Wardener (later to become a professor of medicine), is now 92 years old and lives in London. His performance as the Fairy Queen on that first night is the stuff of legend. As a result of the resounding success of this pantomime, he and others went on to produce many more shows, revues and concerts, which helped to keep morale and spirits high.

As one of those quoted in Eldredge's book remarked after seeing the second night of Babes in Thailand: “Just a rough and ready, makeshift pantomime by a bunch of amateurs who have probably never performed on a stage before in their whole lives — yet, for a brief moment, in the middle of our dark jungle, they brought us a shaft of light, a breath of freedom. Afterwards, when I rolled myself in my blanket and settled down to sleep, I found my heart strangely refreshed.”

The National Memorial Arboretum is home to the FEPOW Memorial Museum. For further information and registration details for the conference, please visit: www.researchingfepowhistory.org.uk