Not About Heroes
Not About Heroes
Napier University, Edinburgh
Neil Cooper
It is more than 30 years since Stephen MacDonald's study of the relationship between poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (while both were residents in Edinburgh's Craiglockhart War Hospital) appeared during his tenure as artistic director of Dundee Rep.
Arriving in Edinburgh in a new touring production by Feelgood Theatre Productions as the latest in a flurry of plays produced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, the play's mix of poetry and condemnation looks more pertinent than ever.
This is especially the case when performed inside the striking building where Sassoon and Owen first met, long before it became Napier University's Craiglockhart campus.
Here we see Owen as a young, nervy and shell-shocked literary groupie who suddenly finds himself in the same institution as one of his idols.
While Owen is initially cowed, under Sassoon's guidance his writing finds a voice, and Sassoon opens him up to big-league literary society in the first half of Caroline Clegg's suitably intimate production. With the momentum of the play's second act driven by Owen's poetry as well as letters home to his mother, when the inevitable happens, the loss damages Sassoon forever.
There's a stiff-upper-lip poignancy to MacDonald's script, in which the eloquence of the two men on the page and the social ease they feel around each other only goes so far emotionally.
This is made clear in a pair of powerful and understated performances by Simon Jenkins as Owen and Alasdair Craig as Sassoon.
At the play's crucial heart is a deep-set understanding of the futility of war and the heartbreak it can cause.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article