Not About Heroes

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

The song of the poet sharpens eyesight to incredible visionary depth, painting pictures on the horizon in poignant colors of gratitude, sorrow, anger, desperation, and total delight.

(Pictured left to right) John Kissingford (playing Siegfried Sassoon on left) and Benjamin Summers (playing Wilfred Owen on right) in Not About Heroes. Photo by Christopher Bogush

So it was between two English poets during the once upon a time Great War: WWI.

Based on true events, playwright Stephen MacDonald gleaned a memorable exploration in Not About Heroes currently playing at the Bug Theatre through April 16. Produced by Chasm View Productions, Not About Heroes will play The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder April 22-May 7, 2005.

Under the direction of Rebecca Remaly, Not About Heroes features John Kissingford as Siegfried Sassoon and Benjamin Summers as Wilfred Owens. Both poets, both serving their country in the armed forces in the war that was to end all wars. One survives his injuries. One doesn’t.

In a carefully designed set by Pamela Traymor and Cliff Whitehouse, the play begins in a room in Sassoon’s Wiltshire country house, late at night on November 3, 1931, as he relives the incidents, which took place between August 1917 and November 1918. A well-known recognized poet, he remembers the initial encounter of young want to be poet, Owen. Even in the early stages, Sassoon identified a deep colorful imaginative poet within the young soldier. MacDonald’s play delves into the development of the bond connecting the two men. Both on the same wave length, both able to paint with words the depiction of the horrors of war as “the pity of war, the pity war distills.”

Although the reflections of the play take place in several locations, Kissingford and Summers give remarkable performances as Sassoon and Owen.

Interesting effects are created when the two-part company, Owen leaving Sassoon dressed in his uniform. He doesn’t disappear off stage, he stands stage center with his back to the audience. He’s gone to war, but his presence remains. Both on stage the majority of the time, both Kissingford and Summers maintain the individuality of Sassoon and Owen. Their facial expressions enormous, consistent, reflecting the thoughtful, agonizing, concerned respect for each other in the face of terror, in the face of war.

On opening night at The Bug Theatre, prior to the play’s beginning, a large screen showed silent newsreel images of WWI action. The faces of the men in combat, drawn, dirty, weary, determined faces. In the midst of conversation, the effect provides visualization during the two poet’s conversation over space and time. Seeing the actual newsreel efforts sharpens the delineation of their words, encounters, and subsequent meaning as they dog deep into their souls, trusting each other to speak candidly. Both actors immerse themselves in their characters. With stance, expressions, and voice inflections, the audience gets the feel of looking back through a window of time and space of nearly a hundred years ago to witness first hand the private and public thoughts of these two men. Responsibility hangs heavy on their shoulders to keep the sparks flying or the play itself may seem a tad too long. It isn’t, and there are no sequences of thought I would like to see cut. The demand is on the shoulders of Kissingford and Summers. They have the tools and wherewithal to meet the requirements.

A timely play of provocative thought, an intriguing play requiring actors with intense concentration, a beautifully written play by a skilled man of words, an honest play with emotions worn as a badge of honor. Not About Heroes should not be missed in Denver or in Boulder. This marks Chasm View’s second production, with Mary-Laurence Bevington, producer, labeling this company as a high contender of production companies to watch.