Regeneration

by Nicholas Wright (Adapter), Pat Barker (Original Author)

Craiglockhart, Scotland, 1917. In a hospital for shell-shocked officers, a brilliant doctor provides the cures required to send his patients back to War. Under his tolerant reign, two young officers form a passionate comradeship. Each is a poet, one unknown, the other privileged and successful. Mentored by the older man, the younger falls in love; his genius flowers and he becomes the greater writer. But as his health is restored, he must face a return to battle.

Genres: Plays, World War I

118 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2017

About the author

Nicholas Verney Wright (1940, Cape Town, South Africa) is a British dramatist. He was born in Cape Town, attended Rondebosch Boys' School and from the age of six was a child actor on radio and on the stage. He came to London in 1958 to train as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and subsequently worked as a floor-assistant in BBC Television and as a runner in film, notably John Schlesinger's "Far From the Madding Crowd." He started work at the Royal Court in 1965 as Casting Director and became, first, an Assistant Director there and then the first Director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, where for several years he presented an innovatory programme of new writing. From 1975 - 1977 he was joint artistic director of the Royal Court and he was subsequently a member of the Royal Court Theatre's Board. He is former literary manager and associate director of the Royal National Theatre, and a former member of the National Theatre Board. In 2014 and 2015 he will be the judge of the Yale Drama Series competition for playwrights. His publications include 99 Plays, a survey of drama from Aeschylus to the present day, and Changing Stages, co-written with Richard Eyre.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this primarily as I have been reading up on Sassoon and his lover, Stephen Tennant, so thought rather than reading through Barker's 600-page trilogy about Sassoon's sojourn in the Craiglockhart mental hospital, I would sample this stage version instead. The touring production got laudatory reviews (below) and indeed, this is rather a formidable script that tempts me to read Barker's original.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.stagereview.co.uk/theatre...