- By Allan Monkhouse
- Directed by Mary Broome
The Orange Tree Theatre swings right back to the revivals it's particularly known for with this sensitive 1923 Allan Monkhouse portrait of a family torn apart by conflicting attitudes to the incoming First World War.
'Those that we call traitors may be the heroes - the men of conscience and ideals. It's my work to look into men's souls. It's truth I want, not this blatant simplicity. We are to be all one now. What a time! The day of the cheap patriot has come.'
It's 1914 and writer Christopher cannot see that he has any duty to become a solider:
'My body would go through with it. My mind would be in perpetual revolt.'
He is horrified at the simplification of the world before him, that men are divided into only two types:
'The man who goes to the war and the man who doesn't.'
His brother Stephen, a pacifist, also refuses to sign up and the military family struggles to place the two young men within the country's unfolding narrative. Conscientious objections to the conflict are not easy principles to espouse at such a time, and Christopher's relationships, both romantic and familial, suffer as the operation advances. As early twentieth-century England strives to find meaning behind the rapid and ever-expanding recruitment process, both brothers are forced to decide what role they might take on - for their family and for their country.
This is a powerful and moving play by an author the Orange Tree is proud to have 're-discovered', and, like many of his works, speaks universally of fragile and tense relations between men and women against rich evocations of the era's historical context.
2012-04-25 at : –
2012-06-09 at
Orange Tree Theatre : -The Conquering Hero - OLD EVENT
Orange Tree Theatre
* By Allan Monkhouse
* Directed by Mary Broome
The Orange Tree Theatre swings right back to the revivals it's particularly known for with this sensitive 1923 Allan Monkhouse portrait of a family torn apart by conflicting attitudes to the incoming First World War.
bq. 'Those that we call traitors may be the heroes - the men of conscience and ideals. It's my work to look into men's souls. It's truth I want, not this blatant simplicity. We are to be all one now. What a time! The day of the cheap patriot has come.'
It's 1914 and writer Christopher cannot see that he has any duty to become a solider:
bq. 'My body would go through with it. My mind would be in perpetual revolt.'
He is horrified at the simplification of the world before him, that men are divided into only two types:
bq. 'The man who goes to the war and the man who doesn't.'
His brother Stephen, a pacifist, also refuses to sign up and the military family struggles to place the two young men within the country's unfolding narrative. Conscientious objections to the conflict are not easy principles to espouse at such a time, and Christopher's relationships, both romantic and familial, suffer as the operation advances. As early twentieth-century England strives to find meaning behind the rapid and ever-expanding recruitment process, both brothers are forced to decide what role they might take on - for their family and for their country.
This is a powerful and moving play by an author the Orange Tree is proud to have 're-discovered', and, like many of his works, speaks universally of fragile and tense relations between men and women against rich evocations of the era's historical context.
play
Venue
Orange Tree Theatre
Event Sponsor
Orange Tree Theatre
