About the Play:

Not About Heroes is a full-length drama by Stephen MacDonald. This Edinburgh Festival Fringe First winning play is about the unique friendship between celebrated World War One poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. They met at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland in 1917, and bonded over a mutual hatred of war and love of poetry.

Not About Heroes depicts the poetic life and friendship of two of the finest Great War poets: Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. August 1917. Wilfred Owen, a 24-year-old shell-shocked British soldier, meets the famous poet, soldier, and war protester Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland. Their mutual love of poetry and disillusionment with the war draws them together, sparking a powerful friendship. Sassoon nurtures Owen's budding talent, and between them, they convey the horror of their experiences in the death-filled trenches of France and Germany in a way that forever alters the public's opinion of World War I. Told by means of letters and poetry, Stephen MacDonald's moving and powerful play paints a vivid picture of the First World War.

Not About Heroes premiered in 1982 at The Netherbow Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was awarded a Fringe First by the Scotsman. It toured and came into the King's Head Theatre Pub, an off-West End venue in London, was adapted for Yorkshire TV and BBC Radio 4 all in 1983. In 1986, the play came to the Royal National Theatre in London and a British national tour took place the following year. It received its US premiere in 1985 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and transferred to off-Broadway the Lucille Lortel Theater, with Edward Herrmann and Dylan Baker both winnning OBIE awards for their performances of the poets.

Cast: 2 men

What people say:

"Recreates the Great War as tangibly as if the theatre had filled with the smoke and stench of the battlefield. Compelling and superbly performed." — British Theatre Guide

"...creates an engaging delineation between two entirely different personalities united by a common vocation and some truly hellish experiences." — The Guardian

Stephen MacDonald (1933-2009) was a British actor, dramatist, novelist, and director. He was brought up and educated in Birmingham, where he trained as an actor, and subsequently worked extensively in Scotland as a theatre director. He began his directorial career at Leicester Phoenix Theatre and was later artistic director of three repertory theatres and greatly enhanced each theatre's repertoire with innovative programming and new drama that gave each theatre a very definite sense of identity.