Set in Edinburgh and commemorating the centenary of the First World War, Pat Barker’sRegeneration tells the story of Siegfried Sassoon. Read more …
In July 1917, in an open letter to The Times, Sassoon made a passionate denunciation of both the war's aims and the strategy of the generals. The army, reluctant to court marshall Sassoon, decided instead to commit him to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, where he was incarcerated until he was ‘cured.’
At Craiglockhart, Sassoon meets and befriends another patient, fellow poet, Wilfred Owen, and is 'treated' by Dr W H Rivers, a pioneering psychiatrist in the treatment of what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.
Challenging definitions of sanity itself, the play dramatically explores the effects of war and of man's battle to honour both his conscience and duty to his fellow man.
This is a very human testament to the results of the horrors of war where acts of love can still abound.
Wright and director Simon Godwin deserve credit for fashioning a largely cohesive whole when the scope, complexity and ambition of the play could have caused it to fall apart. If there are some drawbacks in the production, it rarely drags.
King's Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday September 30, 2014, until Sunday October 5, 2014. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/kings
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