Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s The Wipers Times tells the true and extraordinary story of the satirical newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the Somme. Following a sell-out season, The Wipers Times returns to the West End.
In a bombed out building during the First World War in the Belgian town of Ypres (mis-pronounced 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 front line.
★★★★ “Laugh a minute” Mail on Sunday
★★★★ “Remarkable forerunner to Private Eye” Daily Telegraph
★★★★ “Even – perhaps especially – at its silliest, the play has a respect for its subject matter that is deadly serious and decidedly affecting” The Times
★★★★★ “Quite magnificent” Libby Purves, TheatreCat
★★★★★ “Wonderfully theatrical” WhatsonStage
