THE 2015 national tour of Rachel Wagstaff’s stage play Birdsong, adapted from the novel by Sebastian Faulks, will visit Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts, from Tuesday, March 24 to Saturday, March 28.

Touring during the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Birdsong tells a mesmerising story of love and courage, before and during the war.

In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their worlds upside down. As the war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground.

Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as his world explodes around him.

Peter Duncan, Edmund Wiseman and Emily Bowker head the cast of the 2015 tour.

Though perhaps best known as a Blue Peter presenter, and most recently seen competing on BBC One’s Tumble, Peter began his acting career in the 1970s when he joined the National Theatre.

Edmund Wiseman, whose recent theatre credits include Richard II (RSC/Barbican), Duchess of Malfi (White Bear Theatre) and Filumena (Almeida), and Emily Bowker, whose recent roles include A Bunch of Amateurs (The Watermill), What the Women Did (Two’s Company/Southwark Playhouse) and London Wall (Two’s Company/Finborough and St James Theatres), play the romantic leads of Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire.

The 2013 and 2014 tours were hugely successful and critically acclaimed, seen by over 130,000 people and receiving four and five star reviews, with audiences calling the show ‘simply stunning’. Sebastian Faulks was thrilled the show was re-mounted to tour again, and has previously stated: “Both Rachel and I want this to be the definitive version of Birdsong on stage.

“The audience watch it and think: ‘Thank God I have never undergone all of this.’ “These experiences are far outside the lives of most people but there is something about the way the production works which makes people identify and think: ‘It could be me.’”

Birdsong is at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts from March 24 to 28 at 7.45pm with performances at 5.30pm on March 25 and March 28.