A
century after the outbreak of World War One, what does war and
conflict mean to young people today?
Find
out at The Dukes from this Tuesday 18th to Saturday 22nd March when the Lancaster theatre stages a
bold and thrilling new production – Your Country Needs You! (But I
don’t need my country…).
Some
of the fifty members of The Dukes Young Actors and Young Company
presenting the production are the same age as many soldiers who
served in the Great War. And
during the preparations for the show, the 14 to 20-year-olds
researched the war at Lancashire Infantry Museum, took part in a
military drill and discovered what war is like nowadays from a
Lancaster soldier who served in Afghanistan.
These
experiences have fed back into the four short new plays, by
awardwinning writers, which fuse together to produce Your Country
Needs You!
Laurence
Wilson, who wrote the successful productions of The Unsociables and
Metropolis for The Dukes, focuses his play on two young soldiers
returning to Britain from Afghanistan and the different paths they
take. It explores their experiences of war and the psychological
impact of conflict.
The
Combined Services Entertainment organisation, formerly ENSA, is at
the heart of Daragh Carville’s play which follows two Lancashire
cadets sent to Camp Bastion to entertain the troops.
Eddie
Robson’s play takes a Monty Pythonesque look at the development of
the arms race and the rules of war by focusing on children playing a
game of war in a make believe playground.
And
the fourth play looks at how civilians are affected by war by drawing
on testimonials from a Gaza youth project.
Your
Country Needs You! (But I don’t need my country…) is very much a
contemporary take on war. It follows in the tradition of the
previously successful productions of The Unsociables and Hamlet by
The Dukes Young Actors and Young Company.
Performances,
which are recommended for anyone aged 14 plus, will be in The Round
at The Dukes and feature live music.
Director,
Louie Ingham, said: “We want to produce theatre that’s exciting
for young people to make and exciting for people of any age to watch.
This production explores our place in the world and is our response
to the first of five years of investigating World War One and what
conflict means to young people now.”
Performances daily from 18 – 22 March 2014 at 7.30pm + Saturday 22 March matinee at 2pm.
Age guidance 14+
There will be a post show talk-back after the performance on Tuesday 18 March.
Ask at the Box Office to find out more about The Dukes Young Programme and workshops and events running alongside this show.
Tickets £9 (£7 conc) from the Box Office: 01524 598500 or online at:
http://www.dukes-lancaster.org