Into Battle
Greenwich Theatre
 

HUGH SALMON’S debut is a play of two distinct halves welded together by the extraordinary real-life experiences of its characters which far surpasses its billing as “the true story of a bitter feud at Oxford University.”
 
The first half is fundamentally concerned with the battle of ideas taking place in the upper echelons of British society at the beginning of the 20th century. The battle is causing ruptures in Balliol College where Etonian toffs are running riot while in the background the House of Lords have just voted to block Asquith’s “People’s Budget.”

It’s difficult to ignore the ironic relevance over a century on.

The often drunk and always irksome Billy Grenfell (Nikolas Salmon) trashes the halls while his virtuous “chief opponent” Keith Rae (Joe Gill) is establishing a Boys’ Club to bridge the social divide between the college and the slums of Oxford.