You’ll be seeing quite a few plays about World War I as the centenary of its years of carnage creeps up on us, but Private Peaceful has to be among the best of the crop. Based on a story by best-selling children’s author Michael Morpurgo and adapted by Simon Reade, this is the tragic yet gripping tale of a young soldier at the Western Front.

As Tommo Peaceful waits for dawn and the firing squad, a condemned private tells us of his short life and the events that have led to his being sentenced to death for cowardice. He introduces us to his home in rural Devon, his family and neighbours and the news of approaching war and joining up to fight. Barely has he arrived at the front than he is sent on a trench raid - its successful outcome proves that he is made of the right stuff. And yet old rivalries raise their head when he falls foul of an NCO from back home and when the day comes to go over the top for the big one, it explodes in murderous no-man’s land.

Bizarrely, this doesn’t feel like a one-man show, thanks to Alexander Campbell’s remarkably sustained performance. His understated portrayal of Tommo earns our complete sympathy as he goes to his doom in Flanders Fields and we really do start to see the world change around him through his eyes.

In fact, everyone in this production has done their homework on what is still a controversial part of our history, and director Reade ensures that every detail convinces, from the recreation of the raid to the way Tommo puts on his puttees. Only the ending perhaps takes one step too far from reality since, paradoxically, death would not only be a just sentence but one that would also be commuted under the complex circumstances of Tommo’s story.