War poets drama
THE ROWAN Tree Theatre Company is performing a play based on two First World War poets as part of Shetland Arts’ autumn touring theatre programme. Not About Heroes, by Stephen MacDonald, covers the story of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
Owen and Sassoon are perhaps the best known of all the First World War poets. Yet the former might never have reached his full potential had it not been for their friendship, forged at Craiglockhart Military Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Macdonald’s play charts that friendship, and Owen’s emergence as one of the most poignant voices of that war, and of all wars. Not About Heroes is directed by Shetland Arts’ drama development officer John Haswell, who said: “This is a story of two poets. It is also a story of two men, of their friendship and their emotional release.”
Both the actors began their careers with Borders Youth Theatre. Oliver Bisset (Sassoon) trained at Fife College and the Welsh College of Music and Drama and worked with Cascade Theatre in Education Company in Cornwall before returning to the Borders. Since then he has been a director with Borders Youth Theatre.
Matthew Burgess (Owen) has taken part in many youth and community theatre productions.
Not About Heroes will be performed at Walls Hall on Wednesday 19th November and at Scalloway Hall the following evening. Both performances start at 7.30pm and tickets cost £8 (£6 for concessions). Tickets are available by calling (01595) 745555.
