Prisoners of War in The Mikado

The_Gala_Performance_-_The_Mikado_at_the_Theatre_of_the_British_Civilian_Pow_Camp_Ruhleben_Germany_Art_IWMART6173 1916 First World War One

The comic opera The Mikado, created by Englishmen Gilbert & Sullivan, premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London on the 14th of March, 1885.

This painting depicts the show being performed in the Ruhleben internment camp west of Berlin in Germany in 1916. British prisoners, interned during the First World War, staged the show from memory.

The painting is by Anglo-Dutch artist Nico Jungmann, who was interned at Ruhleben because he was a naturalised British citizen.

From the collection of the Imperial War Museums.

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