Description
A Modern Classic edition of this First World War play with supporting notes for students including a full introduction exploring the work's themes, context and history, classroom activities and a chronology.
About the Author
Peter Whelan is an award-winning playwright who has been producing modern classic plays since 1970s. He began his career in advertising and short film scripting before starting to write for the stage. In 1996 he was appointed an Honorary Artistic Associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His numerous plays include A Revolutionary Marriage, The Earthly Paradise, A Russian in the Woods, Overture, Divine Right, The Herbal Bed, Shakespeare Country and The School of Night.
Reviews
One of the best plays ever about the first world war ... The strength of Whelan's play is that it captures ... the contradictions of the time ... Whelan also has the natural dramatist's knack of expressing his ideas through purely theatrical means ... For all the great poems, novels and movies produced by the first world war, nothing quite matches theatre for pulverising your emotions. -- Michael Billington * Guardian *
Funny, touching and real ... We know the end, and the late scenes are terrifying; yet within the horror is a saving evocation of rebellion. -- Libby Purves * The Times *
This is a drama full of warmth between both women and men, yet full, too, of asperity and political scepticism ... The Accrington Pals is a revelation. It chronicles in the round a vital piece of 20th-century history, showing the battlefield but concentrating on civilian life. It goes beyond documentary, drawing on a visionary stage vocabulary and creating individual stories that are both desolating and stirring ... It's a wonderful play for anywhere. -- Susannah Clapp * Observer *
Whelan writes with a poet's ear for colloquial turns of phrase and characterfully expressed thoughts but there's nothing sentimental about this communal portrait ... To say that it leaves you emotionally shattered almost feels like an insult to those bygone souls and the horrors they faced but quietly shattering it is, all the same. -- Dominic Cavendish * Telegraph *
Book Information
ISBN 9781408137109
Author Peter Whelan
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 128g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 9mm