Education Pack Contents

Education Pack Contents About this Resource 2 Blackeyed Theatre 3 The Author, Owen & Sassoon 4 The Great War 6 Creativity from Conflict 8 Lest We Forget 9 The Power of Words 10 Sexuality in the Military 12 Shell Shock 14 Performance at the Front 16 Comedy in Tragedy 18 The Techniques 20 Fact into Fiction 21 Watching the show 22 Copyright Blackeyed Theatre 2013 Users may copy pages from this pack for educational use, but no part may be reproduced for commercial use without prior permission. 1 About this Resource This resource is designed to fully support our touring production of Not About Heroes by Stephen MacDonald, and provide you with additional creative and cross-curricular activities to enhance your visit to the production. It is designed for key stages 3 to 5 and BTEC levels 2 and 3, but activities can be adapted for other ages. The resource comprises 2 sections: 1 Exploring the Play This is the largest section and contains notes and activities to help your group get to grips with the play before their visit; to think about the story and themes and to consider contemporary dramatic interpretations. This section is divided into 2 areas: o Context and Overarching Themes o Techniques and Performance 2 Watching the Show This section contains questions and activities that students can engage with during their visit to see the production, to help maximise their understanding and enjoyment. Blackeyed Theatre’s production of Not About Heroes will be touring in Autumn 2014 For more information and bookings please visit www.blackeyedtheatre.co.uk We have intended to make the layout of the resource as accessible as possible, in order for sections of the pack to be used on their own, or in a different order. The pre-production pages contain these elements: Notes which provide useful contextual and ‘student activity’ which contains practical theoretical information about the focus of the section. tasks that you can set for your group to This is designed to be supplemented with your own develop their knowledge, skills and research and background knowledge. attitudes about each topic along the way. Script extracts taken from Not About Heroes, and used to illustrate a key idea from that section. ‘Stretch’ containing higher level thinking questions and activities to stretch and challenge your students. 2 Blackeyed Theatre Blackeyed Theatre is a mid-scale touring theatre company established in 2004 to create exciting opportunities for artists and audiences alike, and to offer challenging, high quality theatre to the mid-scale touring circuit. The company specialises in reviving modern classics and staging established titles in innovative ways, using small ensembles of actor/musicians to create theatre that is audacious, fresh and far bigger than the sum of its parts. Since 2004, Blackeyed Theatre has embarked on national tours of Dracula (new commission), Teechers (John Godber), Mother Courage And Her Children (Bertolt Brecht), The Trial (Steven Berkoff), Oh What A Lovely War (Theatre Workshop), The Madness of George III (Alan Bennett), Alfie (Bill Naughton), The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Bertolt Brecht), the world premiere of Oedipus (Steven Berkoff) and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Bertolt Brecht). In 2009, Blackeyed Theatre became an associate company of South Hill Park Arts Centre. In 2008, the company produced its first Christmas show, A Christmas Carol, and a year later Peter Pan. In 2011, Blackeyed Theatre launched its first new writing scheme, Pulse, with the intention to provide a new writer with the opportunity to see their work produced professionally on stage. The winning play, The Beekeeper, was performed initially at South Hill Park in Bracknell before transferring to Waterloo East Theatre in London for a three week run, where it received three Off West End Theatre Award nominations. Blackeyed Theatre create innovative, challenging theatre that’s also commercially viable. It achieves this by producing work that audiences want to see but in ways that challenge their expectations, by bringing together artists with a genuine passion for the work they produce, and through an appreciation that works of art with a mass appeal do not have to be presented in a dumbed-down way. By offering a theatrical experience that’s both artistically excellent and affordable, audiences and theatres are far more sustainable in the long term. And responding to demand ensures that more people see innovative theatre. Blackeyed Theatre has a growing national reputation for creating dynamic theatre using live music and great performances to tell stories with honesty and passion. This resource was written and designed by Liz Allum and Danielle Corbishley. For more information about the tour, our education pack, or Blackeyed Theatre in general please email us at [email protected] 3 Stephen MacDonald Not About Heroes is a play written by Stephen MacDonald about two soldiers, war poets and friends, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It was first performed in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh festival in 1982. The production won a ‘Fringe First’ award, which is an annual award for new plays and theatre pieces. A particularly significant production was staged at the National Theatre in 1986 to mark the centenary of Siegfried Sassoon’s birth, and since then there have been many other productions all over the world. Stephen MacDonald was born in 1933, and began his career as an actor in Birmingham and eventually he became the Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. Stephen MacDonald also played the role of Siegfried Sassoon in the National Theatre staging of the play Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon The play tells the true story of the meeting of two great English poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, who were both fighting in World War One. They met at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh in August 1917. Owen was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, after a particularly horrendous trench mortar explosion that left him lying injured for days amongst the remains of a fellow officer. Sassoon, a Lieutenant and recipient of the Military Cross for bravery, had become completely disillusioned by the futility of the war and the many thousands of lost lives. He wrote a letter that was read out in the House of Lords, stating that he believed the war had become an aggressive conquest, and no longer had a just cause and therefore, he would refuse to fight. This letter was also sent to the press and so became very public and very embarrassing to the military. Instead of immediate dismissal, they agreed to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart Hospital, perhaps as an attempt to discredit him with the stigma of mental illness. Wilfred Owen By kind permission of The English Faculty Library, University of Oxford / The Wilfred Owen Literary Estate. Siegfried Sassoon This item is from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University of Oxford (www.oucs. ox.ac.uk/ww1lit) © [Cambridge University Library / The Siegfried Sassoon Literary Estate] 4 Script Extract Owen writes to his mother after his friendship with Sassoon begins to blossom Owen. My own dear Mother, These last days have been the fullest, the happiest of the year. I like Sassoon equally as a man, as a friend, as a poet – and his new poems are superb beyond anything in his last book. Owen was hugely inspired by Sassoon during his time at Craiglockhart, and they formed a strong friendship Both were hugely disillusioned with the conflict, and had witnessed the true horrors of the war. They both felt the need to communicate the truth, and did so through their poetry. Both Sassoon and in his turn Owen, learnt the ‘gritty realism’ of their war poetry from Robert Graves, another army officer and eventually author of Goodbye to All That, and I Claudius. Wilfred Owen returned to France to fight, motivated by his desire to continue to report on the conflict through his poetry, especially when Sassoon was injured and sent back to the UK again. Owen was killed on the 4th November 1918, aged 25, just one week before peace was declared. The title of the play comes from the foreword that Wilfred Owen wrote to his collected works of poetry. “This book is not about heroes. English Poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” Wilfred Owen’s Grave: Ors This item is from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University of Oxford (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit) © 5 The Great War In 1914 the Archduke of Austria Franz A Frontline trench on the Somme Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated This item is from The First World War Poetry Digital by a Serbian nationalist. After ensuring they had Archive, University of Oxford (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ ww1lit); © [The Imperial War Museum] the support of Germany, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Most European countries had complicated alliances and agreements with one another, and the dispute engaged many governments. Germany had long feared the threat of the countries that surrounded it, and had long before created a plan of attack, were war to break out. This plan was known as the Schlieffen Plan. Germany decided to begin its assault by invading France through Belgium. Britain had a pact of military support with Belgium and so was obliged to defend them. Eventually the Americans joined the British and French, as the Russian forces were withdrawing due to internal conflict and the overthrowing of the czar.

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