Not About Heroes

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Drama Characters: 2 males

Set Requirements: Unit set

"Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori," facetiously penned British poet Wilfred Owen, who was soon to die in the Great War. It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. This moving play is about the poetic life and the inter relationship between two of the finest Great War poets: Owen who died and Siegfried Sasson who didn't. Told by means of letters and poetry, Not About Heroes paints a vivid picture of the war. It was staged to

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1983

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This edition

Format
90 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 1983 by FABER \u0026 FABER INC *
ISBN
9780571131280
ASIN
057113128X
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Wilfred Owen

    Wilfred Owen

    Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his f...

  • Siegfried Sassoon

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 12 votes)
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12 reviews All reviews
April 25,2025
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Wilfred Owen to Siegfried Sassoon:

"And you have fixed my Life – however short. You did not light me: I was always a mad comet; but you have fixed me. I spun round you a satellite for a month, but I shall swing out soon, a star in the orbit where you will blaze."

Told in flashbacks/memories by Sassoon post-war, the play is mostly based on real letters and diaries, and it's very gay and very sad.

I basically cried throughout reading the whole play which chronicles the time Owen and Sassoon knew each other from their time at Craiglockheart hospital in October 1917 to Owen's death and the end of the war in November 1918. Ouch.
April 25,2025
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Tasty homoerotic fan-fiction. OR IS IT??? Fiction, that is.

Dulce et decorum est, indeed, Mr. MacDonald.
April 25,2025
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This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honor, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.
April 25,2025
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A truly sweet, heartwarming monologue between historical characters, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It plays out their relationship well, even though the author does not go as far as to describe the very real "romantic" relationship they had.

If you love Pat Barker's "Regeneration" series, you will definitely appreciate this play.
April 25,2025
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I was asked to read this on July 3, 2022. It was powerful in that like Robinson Jeffers, both Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, fought bravely for their country, and were PTSD patients before they knew the term.
Because Sassoon was a known poet, and won medals, they sent him to a NERVOUS HOSPITAL, and Owen who became the better artist, was not known as a poet and was labeled a coward.

Both returned to war, but not for the reasons one would suspect.

Devastating play.
April 25,2025
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Having first seen this play performed to perfection at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I immediately ordered the script. And I bought two volumes of poetry - one of Sassoon's and one of Owen's - and poured over them. Next I wrote a grant so I could produce a staged reading of the play. It was mesmerizing. Now I am directing a full production and have the talents of two fine actors and a set designer who understands the bareness of the scenes. The poetry - with helpful lighting - is the scenic design.
Anyone who only reads this text will not get the subtleties, the slow growing relationship, the kindness, love and tragedy that befall the two poets. But mostly they will not find the rich core of war torn emotions and devastation, the futility and madness war invokes.
This is what makes this script so important, so universal and pertinent.
April 25,2025
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This was one of those books I wanted to write. And so I resent it not only for having already been written, but for not even being written particularly well. It's a great story, of course, but history gave us the story; MacDonald doesn't add much. It's a very, very textual book--textual in the sense of drawing heavily on Sassoon's and Owen's writing, but also textual in the sense of not subtextual. There's very little authorial interpretation going on here, which makes it a pretty flat retelling.
April 25,2025
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One of the most astonishingly beautiful things I have ever read. Fascinating to see relationship between Owen and Sassoon (particularly having read Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' and looked at the pair's poetry). Loved the integration of the poems into the text of the play itself and seeing the poems we know so well come into being (particularly the moment of the creation of 'Anthem').

Now need to look in greater detail at the poetry - particularly Sassoon's.
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