Not About Heroes

‘Not About Heroes’ tells the story of two of the finest of the war poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.  They met at Craiglockhart War Hospital, a place where the wards and corridors were filled with men deranged and rendered physically incapable by their experiences in the trenches and battlefields.

Throughout the play, the relationship deepens from a certain aloofness on Sassoon's part (wealth and social privilege) towards a young station master's son from the middle class to friendship and ultimately love leading to Sassoon's overwhelming grief of Owen's death.
This play, is also; ‘Not About Sexuality’ - whilst watching the play, I could not help but hope that we weren’t going to be taken down the road of sexuality, I'm so glad that what we saw and heard was only subtly suggestive and didn’t focus heavily on that side of the relationship, a direction I was almost certain (on a number of occasions) the plot would take us, but felt relieved that it didn’t. Gradually, you begin to realise that these were not men in love but men who loved each other - a different thing altogether.

This piece is a heavy two hander, the actors (Peter Gibson as Sassoon with Steven Banks as Owen) worked extremely hard throughout the performance, they both appeared impressively effortless and fluid with their dialogue on opening night!

Steven had a wonderfully relaxed manner and natural openness to his performance making him a very likable and warm character for the audience to connect with. I sensed an awkward conduct in Peter’s characterisation, which is more than correct for Sassoon - though it does make the role more challenging for the actor to gain a strong bond with the audience playing such a conscientious square. Peter’s accent and straight backed physique was consistently held throughout, though I would have liked if he’d bared more of his soul in his final monologue.
 
The staging was simple but well thought and effective, it was always clear where and when we were. The lighting design was precise, the monochrome colour theme throughout the production (with touches of strong red) works beautifully for such a piece and in keeps with the war theme, such a subtle and creative decision – the type which often goes by unnoticed. This was a strong directorial debut for Sandra O’Nions, and not an easy play to tackle for a first timer with its sparse settings, hefty topic and (what must have been an) intense process.      

The final moments of the play left a fixed memory of an evening which will not easily be forgotten.

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