Ben Hennessy’s historic throwback Boy Soldier ends it’s six-date run at the Everyman Palace Theatre on Saturday, March 8.

The production, which debuted in 2006 to national acclaim, recounts the story of Waterford native John Condon, the youngest allied soldier killed in the First World War. Focusing on the forgotten figures of Irish history, the play commemorates the lives of the many unacknowledged Irishmen who fought and died in the First World War.

Ballybricken born Condon was just 14 years of age when he was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres on May 24, 1915. His grave in Flanders is the second most visited in the world, topped only by the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Rome. Writer and Artistic Director of Red Kettle, Ben Hennessy says ‘John Condon from Waterford has become famous as the symbol for child soldiers all over the world’.

Originally developed in a series of workshops with the company in Waterford and in Flanders, in which the cast visited the battlefields and graves of the many Irishmen who lost their lives in the war, the Waterford based Red Kettle Theatre Company premiered Boy Soldier as their 21st Anniversary production in 2006. Since then, Red Kettle has won critical acclaim for its 2007 production of Ridley Walker.

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