The tale of a trapped miner has struck a chord with audiences across the country and garnered praise for its poignant portrayal of the horrors of the Great War.

The Trench, from Les Enfants Terribles, follows a soldier stuck underneath a sodden trench through music, mime, puppetry and live-action acting.

The company says of the miner's tale: "As the horror threatens to engulf him, he finds that not everything in the darkness is what it seems as he starts to discover a new, strange world beneath the mud and death.

"Setting off on an epic journey of salvation, the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur as he questions what’s real, what’s not and whether it even matters."

One man particularly drawn to the story was musician Alexander Wolfe, who wrote the original score for the play.

Wolfe says that on reading the script for the first time, "it broke my heart a little bit in places."

He adds: "The story is so relentless. The music from The Trench is moody and it's dark and it sets a scene.

"I tried to use music from the era and it just sounded ludicrous. Music from the time was putting a brave face on it, and trying to be cheerful.

"I just wrote how I felt about it. It was partly I realised I didn't have to follow the rules of theatre music-writing, I could just write songs.

"I wanted it to be accessible to everyone."

A couple of the pieces from the play have found their way onto Wolfe's new album, From The Shallows - which launched this week.

  • The Trench; Rose Theatre, High Street, Kingston; October 22-25; various times; from £13; visit rosetheatrekingston.org.