“I realised that somewhere in the back of their tiny minds they really do think the war will end in an almighty cavalry charge.”
Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland, 1917.
The Great War rages in Europe and Lieutenant Siegfried Sassoon is hospitalised against his will with shell-shock. Sassoon denies being ill but Dr Rivers soon discovers Siegfried is a haunted man. Slipping into solitude, Sassoon takes comfort in the lively company of the handsome officer Wilfred Owen, but mentorship soon sparks something more between the closeted young poets.
Elsewhere in the hospital, officers loudly berate a military leadership of out-of-touch toffs and demand experimental treatments to get them back to The Front. Above it all the stoic Dr. Rivers, an early pioneer of talking therapy, struggles to reconcile his Hippocratic Oath with his duty to King and Country.
Regeneration is a shocking, energetic, feast of a play based on the true story of Craiglockhart War Hospital and the courageous dissidents, vibrant poets, and patriotic gay lovers who walked its wards.
Adapted by Olivier Award-winning playwright Nicholas Wright, from the Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name by Pat Barker, this play returns to the London stage for the first time since its debut, and is directed by Oliver McFadden.
Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH. Dates: Tuesday – Saturday 26 October – 13 November at 7.30pm. Admission: £16, £14 concessions (16+)
Box office: www.brockleyjack.co.uk – 0333 666 3366 (£1.80 fee for phone bookings only)
