More than 50 people from all over east London are taking part in a huge community play which looks at how poignant times in history affected the locals in the area, writes Nick Elvin

The Blitz, Mods and Rockers, England’s World Cup victory and the industrial strife of the 1970s are among the subjects that feature in a new play about East End life.

Down the River and Up the Road spans the period from the 1940s to 1970s, telling the story of two neighbouring families – one East End Cockneys, the other Irish immigrants – who live on an Upton Park prefab estate, focusing on their sons who become inseparable friends.

Directing the play, which runs at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch next week, is the theatre’s education manager Patrick O’Sullivan.

“It opens in the Blitz, with people moving from the East End further out east,” he says. ”Before the Blitz this was fairly much a countryside area, but a lot of people were rehoused. The themes have resonance with the people who live here today, such as immigration and youth culture.

”There are questions such as should immigrants integrate or retain their culture? Or there’s the media furore about young people, in this case Mods and Rockers. It’s the same as today, it’s been projected onto a new generation.”

Patrick explains that the production is the Queen’s Theatre’s bi-annual community play, an event which aims to involve local people, such as in this case the play’s writers Dave Ross, Gerry Sweeney and Nick Dawson.

”What we try to do is get local writers to write about the community and the area,” says Patrick. ”This year it’s a wider project than we’ve had before. We’re doing lots of oral histories with people who lived in the area through those times. An example is we interviewed one of the Pentonville 5, from the the march on Pentonville Prison, which was a big moment in industrial action. Part of it was to get the actors to learn about these times.”

Open auditions were held in April, and people from all over east London landed parts in the play.

”We have a cast of over 50 actors and what we tried to do at the audition was to have an open door policy. Some people are a higher standard than others. We wanted the lead actors to be of a high standard.”

As part of the project, local people were asked to send in their photographs from the period, and tell their own stories of East End life, including making audio recordings. These will be presented in an exhibition in the theatre’s foyer.

Patrick says some of the most interesting photographs were from a man who served in World War Two. Towards the end of the war he and his comrades had to go through parts of Europe looking for high-ranking Nazis, and although some had fled to South America and had taken their possessions, some fascinating items were left behind.

”In Austria, in one of the houses, he found a roll of film that had been left, so he put it in his pocket,” says Patrick. ”He got it developed back in England and realised the photographer could have been one of Hitler’s propaganda photographers. There were lots of pictures of Hitler close up. We’ll be showing them in public for the first time.”

Down the River and Up the Road is at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, from Wednesday, July 28 to Saturday, July 31, 8pm. Saturday matinee, 2.30pm and pre-show talk on Saturday, 12.30pm. Tickets: 01708 443333, www.queens-theatre.co.uk