About the Play:

This Is War is a full-length a drama by Hannah Moscovitch. On the battlefield you're part of a military machine yet you remain a person. What happens to the individual soldier in war – specifically four Canadians in Afghanistan – how he or she navigates the moral quandary of killing others and the consequences for the soldier. This Is War is an insightful and emotional look into the embittered psyche of soldiers in the aftermath of combat.

This Is War is a sobering, fictionalized version of an actual incident involving Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Master Corporal Tanya Young, Captain Stephen Hughes, Private Jonny Henderson, and Sergeant Chris Anders have lived through an atrocity while holding one of the most volatile regions in Afghanistan. As each of them is interviewed by an unseen broadcasting organization, they recount their version of events leading up to the horrific incident with painful, relenting replies. Four different perspectives draw the audience into the soldier’s reality, where the split second in which the decision is made to shoot or not shoot is the very essence of war. What is the aftermath of that kind of experience, and how do soldiers get through it to continue doing their job? These are questions that deserve examination, but don’t often get discussed.

This Is War premiered in 2013 at Tarragon Theatre Extra Space in Toronto, Ontario. The play won the Toronto Critic's Award for Best New Canadian Play and toured to Winnipeg's Prairie Theatre Exchange.

Cast: 1 woman, 3 men

What people say:

"...a lacerating look at the psychological toll of combat." — The Globe and Mail

"...this is a powerful play that brings to life the effects on the individual soldier both of combat and the necessity of making split-second decisions." — North Country Public Radio

"...a fine piece of writing and notable for its clear-eyes look at the realities of modern military service...." — The Globe and Mail

"…brilliantly constructed, morally complex…." — National Post

"Raw, breathtaking experience.…the true essence of war…." — The Arts Scene (Toronto)

About the Playwright:

Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed Canadian playwright and TV writer. Her plays have been widely produced across Canada, as well as in the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan. She has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), and the prestigious Windham Campbell Literary Prize administered by Yale University (she is the first Canadian playwright to win the prize). She's twice been a finalist for the Governor General's Award, and twice for the Siminovitch Prize, as well as the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honouring the best English-language women writers worldwide.