Theater Review: ‘Death Comes for the War Poets’

Theater Review: ‘Death Comes for the War Poets’
British poet Siegfried Sassoon (Nicholas Carriere) in playwright Joseph Pearce’s “Death Comes for the War Poets.” sheencenter.org
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NEW YORK—Britishers Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen were arguably the greatest war poets of World War I. Playwright Joseph Pearce has created a theater piece interweaving excerpts from these poets’ works, as well as those of other poets, in addition to his own original text.

Sassoon and Owen became fiercely antiwar after their bitter experiences in the trenches and expressed these feelings in their work. Sassoon fortunately outlived the war and went on to live until he was 80. Less happily, Owen was killed in the war just one week before Armistice was declared. He was only 25, yet left a legacy of deeply felt poetry.

Sassoon (Nicholas Carriere) and Owen (Michael Raver) meet late in the war, and they soon become friends, encouraging each other’s writing.

In the play, another character is been introduced: It is Death, portrayed by actress and dancer Sarah Naughton. Death is sometimes threatening, sometimes seductive. She sometimes cynically sings: “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.” But Sassoon, as nicely played by the nimble Carriere, always manages to escape her grasp.

Performer Sarah Naughton as Death in the "dramatic verse tapestry," "Death Comes for the War Poets." (sheencenter.org)
Performer Sarah Naughton as Death in the "dramatic verse tapestry," "Death Comes for the War Poets." sheencenter.org
Diana Barth
Diana Barth
Author
Diana Barth writes for various theatrical publications and for New Millennium. She may be contacted at [email protected]
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