Not About Heroes: Siegfreed Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, Poets of the Trenches

Not About Heroes

Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 2PM  

In Celebration of national Poetry Month 

It was an amazing coincidence that Britain’s two strongest World War I anti-war soldiers and literary figures should meet at the infamous Craiglockhart War Hospital for those men wounded in mind, body or both. But meet they did and formed a lasting creative and affectionate friendship until Owen’s tragic death in France just before the end of the fighting. Together they served as alternately teacher and pupil as they explored and expanded each others literary horizons.

The text of this performance is taken largely from some of their most powerful poems and excerpted from Stephen MacDonald’s critically acclaimed play, “ Not About Heroes”, written about these two comrades in arms and in life. The readings will be subtly underscored by the music of Rebecca Clarke and Benjamin Britten, who used Wilfred Owen’s evocative poetry in the composition of his magnificent “War Requiem.”

Reservations at www.cuyahogalibrary.orf or call 216-831-6868. Seating is on a first come first serve basis