A Celebration Of Friendship & Poetry At The Lowry

During the First World War, two of England’s greatest twentieth century poets met at Craiglockhart War Hospital. Siegfried Sassoon was a decorated war hero who was hospitalised after protesting against the continuing war. Wilfred Owen was a victim of shell shock and accused of cowardice. Upon returning to the front, Sassoon was shot in the head but survived. Owen went on to win the military cross, then die in the trenches seven days before Armistice Day and receive posthumous fame as the greatest poet of the war.

Stephen MacDonald’s acclaimed play tells the story of the friendship that transformed them both. Using their poetry, letters and autobiographical writings this is a moving celebration of their friendship, their poetry and the power of words.

Owens’ poetry is as relevant today as it was in 1917. The continual search to justify the present war in Iraq poses similar questions to those Sassoon and others asked the generals who prolonged the First World War.

Owen, hospitalised as an officer, was amongst the minority diagnosed with the newly recognised shell-shock. Had he been a private might he have been shot? Instead, he fell on the field of battle and was decorated as a war hero. Ninety years after ’the war to end all wars’ we still have relatives of ordinary soldiers campaigning for posthumous recognition of loved ones shot for ‘cowardice’ who also suffered from the same nervous disorder.

Director of Not About Heroes, Caroline Clegg, feels strongly that the play works on many levels, stating “as well as being a magnificent protest against the stupidity of war, has eloquence, wit and passion that separates the warrior from the war, showing us the man beneath”.

Wilfred Owen is played by Dan Willis, critically acclaimed in the Feelgood Theatre Production of ‘Dracula - The Blood Count’ and ‘Mordred in Arthur – King of The Britons’. Siegfried Sassoon is played by Sam Ellis who was last seen in ‘The Algebra of Freedom’ with 7:84 Theatre Company and appeared as Private Hastings in Steven Spielberg's ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

Not About Heroes
Mon 12 – Wed 14 February 2007
The Lowry, Salford Quays, Greater Manchester
Times: Eves 8pm, Tue & Wed mats 1.30pm
Tickets: £12
Box office: thelowry.com