In the first national touring production of Oh What A Lovely War since Britain went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Northern Stage reinvents this landmark play of post-war British theatre for a new audience.

Joan Littlewood’s groundbreaking musical entertainment will be staged at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday to Saturday by the Newcastle company, with one notable difference. Whereas the play is performed usually by a troop depicting Cockney soldiers, directors Erica Whyman and Sam Kenyon are interested in the northern voices of the war.

As seems to be a theme throughout the 20th century, the armed forces of the First World War had a heavy recruitment from the north east. Often known as the “Fighting Fifth”, the Northumberland Fusiliers raised no fewer than 51 battalions for service in the Great War, making it the second largest contributor of troops after the London Regiment.

The Durham Light Infantry contributed to the war heavily, too. Thousands of volunteers from the mines, shipyards, farms, shops, schools, offices and industries of County Durham joined, and by 1918, the “Durhams” had raised 43 battalions , 22 of them seeing active service overseas on the Western Front, in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India. Some 13,000 “Durhams” died on the battlefields, with thousands more wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

Those statistics cast a shadow over Northern Stage’s interpretation of a play that takes rides through the ironies and tragedies of the First World War.

Created in 1963 by the maverick director Littlewood and her revolutionary company Theatre Workshop, Oh What A Lovely War features a madcap orchestra of musicians, dancers, singers and clowns armed with sketches, songs and stories.

Playing out what begins as “the war game”, their sombre buffoonery and musical ingenuity collides with the bawdy, tough humour of the squaddies on the front line to take the audiences on a journey from the misplaced optimism of the British home front to the blood-soaked fields of Flanders.

While Littlewood’s musical dispels the rose-tinted view of the glory of combat, it treads a fine line, never critical of the brave souls who gave their life for the most absurd of conflicts. “It’s no surprise that in 21st-century Britain, with war waging in the Middle East and details of soldiers’ deaths filling the news daily, our revival has an eerie sense of deja vu and poignancy,” say the directors.

Northern Stage’s Oh What A Lovely War runs at York Theatre Royal from April 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2pm, Thursday, and 2.30pm, Saturday. Recommended for age 12 and upwards. Box office: 01904 623568.