Based on the novels by Pat Barker adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright
Education Resource Pack researched and written by Helen Cadbury
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BRASSED OFF: EDUCATION PACK
Contents
Introduction
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Setting
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Historical Characters: Siegfried Sassoon
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Dr. W.H.R. Rivers
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Wilfred Owen
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Graves and Yealland
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Poetry: Anthem for Doomed Youth
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Poetry: Writing from Experience
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Drama: Devising from Text
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For more information and a tour schedule go to: http://theatrecloud.com/regeneration/tour-info
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Introduction
“I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.� Siegfried Sassoon The world premiere of the play of Pat Barker's Regeneration, adapted by Nicholas Wright, is programmed to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. In July 1917, in an open letter to the Times Newspaper, Siegfried Sassoon made a passionate denunciation of both the war's aims and the strategy of the generals. The army, reluctant to court martial Sassoon, decided instead to commit him to a military psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, where he was incarcerated until he was 'cured'. At the hospital, Craiglockhart, Sassoon is 'treated' by Dr W.H.R. Rivers, a pioneering psychiatrist in the treatment of what we now call post traumatic stress disorder. There, Sassoon also meets and befriends, another patient, fellow poet, Wilfred Owen. Challenging definitions of sanity itself, the play dramatically explores the effects of war and of man's battle to honour both his conscience and duty to his fellow man.
The Education Pack This pack offers an insight into the social and historical context of the play. The pack will be of interest to a range of teachers and students, including English, History, Psychology and Drama. The pack will be updated during the rehearsal process. The material in this pack may be reproduced for classroom use only and not for resale or reproduction in print or electronically without the prior permission of the author. Please note, quotes from the play used in this pack are from a pre-rehearsal draft, and may be subject to change.
Workshops in your school Drama workshops: An exploration of the themes of Regeneration and the War Poets through character work, devising and creative writing. Bespoke versions of the workshop can be arranged either before or after your visit.
Page to Stage The Page-To-Stage is an interactive experience that takes place in the auditorium and on stage. It will last for 60 minutes and will involve members of the acting company and staff director working with the students to analyse a scene from the play. The students will suggest ways of interpreting the text, comment on the choices open to the creative team, and direct the actors on the set. The workshop is not practical, the students sit in the auditorium, but engages the students with the processes involved in creating live theatre.
Contact Stacey Permaul stacey@touringconsortium.com for more information.
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Setting Craiglockart Hospital Craiglockhart, on the outskirts of Edinburgh originally opened as a Hydropathic (or Hydro, a spa hotel for those taking a water cure) in 1880. It was requisitioned by the military during the First World War for use as a hospital for the treatment of shell-shocked officers. Rivers and Brock were two of the doctors there, whose work was considered groundbreaking. It is now part of Napier University, Edinburgh and also houses the War Poets Collection.
Craiglockhart. Summer, day. Siegfried Sassoon and his friend Graves look at the façade of Craiglockhart: once a Victorian “hydro” hotel, now a military hospital. GRAVES!
It’s not very cheerful.
SIEGFRIED!
It’s like a bloody mausoleum.
GRAVES!
True.
Point for Discussion What is the purpose of this exchange between the two men? What is the significance of the word ‘mausoleum’?
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Historical Characters Siegfried Sassoon Born on 8 September 1886 in Kent. Sassoon’s father was part of a Jewish merchant family, originally from Iran and India, and his mother part of the artistic Thorneycroft family. Sassoon studied at Cambridge University but left without a degree. He lived the life of a country gentleman, hunting and playing cricket and writing poetry. May 1915: Sassoon was commissioned into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and went to France. He was wellknown for his bravery in the front line and was given the nickname 'Mad Jack' for his near-suicidal exploits. He was decorated twice. His brother Hamo was killed in November 1915 at Gallipoli. Summer 1916: Sassoon was sent to England to recover from fever. He went back to the front, but was wounded in April 1917 and returned home. Meetings with several prominent pacifists, including Bertrand Russell, reinforced his growing disillusionment with the war and in June 1917 he wrote a letter that was published in the Times. Sassoon’s Declaration could have seen him court-martialled, instead his friend, the poet Robert Graves, persuaded the authorities he was suffering from shell-shock. At Craiglockart, where he was sent for treatment, he established a lasting friendship with his doctor, Rivers, and also met Wilfred Owen. He returned to the Front Line, only to be invalided out of the war when he was shot in the head. Sassoon was generally assumed to be gay, but later married and had a son, although the marriage subsequently broke down. He died in 1967.
RIVERS
You realise that men have been shot for less?
SIEGFRIED
If the War Office had wanted to, they could have shot me ten times over. But they preferred to hush me up by pretending I’d had a breakdown.
RIVERS
Well, I shall disregard the politics and treat you like any other patient. Discuss Sassoon’s Declaration. Do you agree with his point of view?
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Historical Characters Dr. W.H.R. Rivers ground-breaking psychologist Right: Rivers at Craiglockart
1864 William Halse Rivers Rivers was born near Chatham, Kent (the family name repeated as a forename according to family tradition). His father, a master gunner on Nelson’s ship The Victory, became a Church of England clergyman and part-time speech therapist. He showed little sympathy for his son’s stammer, treating him as a case to be cured, rather than a boy needing sympathy. 1881-88 His dream of going to Oxford or Cambridge was destroyed by a serious illness that left him with a post-viral condition. In Regeneration, he takes a holiday from the exhausting demands of his job, just as, in real life, he often had to adapt to the stress of being easily tired. He decided to study medicine at the University of London, and St Bartholomew’s teaching hospital. 1889-92 Rivers developed an interest in neurology and psychology. He wrote several publications: Delirium and its allied conditions (1889), Hysteria (1891) and Neurasthenia (1893). In 1891 Rivers became a house physician at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic, where he developed his interest in the workings of the nervous system and the mind. (N.B. Neurasthenia in war was later known as shell-shock.) 1892-1897 Resigning from the National Hospital in 1892, Rivers traveled to Germany to expand his knowledge of experimental psychology. He stated: "I have during the last three weeks come to the conclusion that I should go in for insanity when I return to England." He became a clinical Assistant at the Bethlem Royal Hospital (formerly known as Bedlam) and began lecturing in psychological mental diseases at Guy’s Hospital, London and in experimental psychology at University College, London. He was subsequently invited to lecture in Cambridge on the functions of the sense organs. 1898 - 1907 He took part in an expedition to the Torres Strait, which lies between Australia and Papua New Guinea. From this point on he became interested in anthropology, (the study of humankind from both a societal and biological point of view). From 1900, he undertook experiments in nerve responses with his friend and collaborator, Henry Head. During this time, Rivers was appointed as a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. 1908-1915 He gave up his post at Cambridge and from 1907–8, traveled to the Solomon Islands, and other areas of Melanesia and Polynesia, returning to England in March 2015. 1915-1918 He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps but his physical health was considered too poor for him to be sent to the Front. He went to work at the Maghull Hospital in Liverpool, where his expertise in psychological disorders was put to use treating ordinary soldiers returning from France, already manifesting the symptoms of shell-shock. He developed his Talking Cure, but it was not entirely effective, probably because of the startling barriers of class difference, which meant the men felt they could not freely talk about their feelings to an authority figure. He moved to Craiglockart, Edinburgh; a hospital for officers with shell-shock, where he met Siegfried Sassoon. They remained friends until the end of Rivers’ life.
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Discussion Point and Activity How has the practice of psychology developed over the years in understanding the effect of war? Explore the chronology and create a timeline of different methods, up to and including the final recognition of the condition of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder.)
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Historical Characters 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 WW1.
Education Born in Oswestry, Owen studied at the Birkenhead Institute and Shrewsbury Technical School. He later worked as a pupil-teacher (a way of working and studying at the same time, in order to continue his education) at the Wyle Cop School in Shrewsbury. While working as a lay assistant to a vicar near Reading, he attended classes in Old English at University College, Reading. He passed the entrance exam for the University of London, but was unable to go because he didn’t get a scholarship, and it was beyond his parents’ means to pay.
Family Owen’s father worked on the railways, which saw the family move between Shropshire and Birkenhead several times while Owen was growing up. He remained very close to his mother until the end of his life. His sister-in-law gave all the family’s letters and papers to the University of Oxford in the 1970s, but his brother Harold had removed anything that mentioned Owen’s sexuality.
Literary Influences The Bible – in his early life Owen was a devout evangelical Anglican. The Romantic poets, particularly John Keats. The French poet Laurent Tailhade, whom Owen met while teaching in France just before the war. Siegfried Sassoon, after meeting him at Craiglockart. The literary circle to which Sassoon introduced him including Oscar Wilde’s friend Robert Ross, Edith and Osbert Sitwell and Robert Graves.
Owen’s War On 21 October 1915, Owen enlisted and, after training, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment and sent to the Front. He fell into a shell hole and suffered concussion; was blown high into the air by a trench mortar, and spent several days lying out on an embankment in Savy Wood. Soon afterwards, he was diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock and sent to Craiglockart. He had written poetry for many years, but at Craiglockart he found his voice, with Sassoon’s encouragement. He edited the hospital’s magazine The Hydra. At the very end of August 1918, Owen returned to the front line. Whilst attempting to traverse the Sambre canal, he was shot and killed. The news of his death, on 4 November 1918, arrived at his parents' house in Shrewsbury a week later, on Armistice Day. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross. He is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery, France. Most of Owen’s war poetry was published after his death. For more information on Wilfred Owen visit the Wilfred Owen society http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/home/
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REGENERATION F: EDUCATION PACK
Historical Characters Graves and Yealland Robert Graves Poet, novelist and historian. Born, Wimbledon, 1895. Died, Deja, Spain, 1985 August 1914, Graves enlisted and went into the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He served in France from 1915 to 1917. It was there that he began his friendship with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, also a Fusilier. On 20 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, Graves was seriously injured by shell fragments. He came back to England, returning briefly to France in 1917 and then spent the remainder of the war in various posts in England and Ireland. Graves published his first volume of poetry, Over the Brazier, in 1916, and then Fairies and Fusiliers in 1917. He wrote regularly to Sassoon, discussing poetry and war. Graves stepped in when Sassoon published his Declaration and convinced the military authorities that his friend was suffering from shellshock. Graves visited Sassoon at Craiglockart and there they both became friends with Wilfred Owen. In January 1918 Owen attended Robert Graves’s wedding to Nancy Nicholson, daughter of the painter William Nicholson. In 1929 Graves published his bestselling autobiography, Goodbye to All That (1929), in which he details trench warfare and the trauma of his own experiences. He also wrote about his friends, including Sassoon, which caused the latter to fall out with him. Robert Graves died at the age of 90, and is buried at Deià , Spain, in a small cemetery overlooking the sea. To find out more about the life and prolific works of Robert Graves go to http://www.robertgraves.org/
Dr. Lewis Yealland 1884-1954 Yealland was a therapist, born in Canada, who specialised in electric shock therapy. He also used less aggressive methods, such as auto-suggestion and persuasion, to ensure troops could be returned to the Front as quickly as possible. He is on record as stating that shell-shock was not an illness, merely a problem of lack of discipline.
Billy Prior Billy Prior is a fictional character, invented by Pat Barker. A young man from a working class background, who has been promoted to Officer rank. He is determined to be declared fit to fight, even though his view of war is ambiguous.
Discussion Point Why do you think Billy is the only major character who is not based on a historical figure?
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Poetry: Anthem for Doomed Youth REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
by Wilfred Owen
right: the poem in Owen’s handwriting with Sassoon’s amendments. (British Library) below: the well-known poem in its published form
Anthem for Doomed Youth What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.
Notes on a close reading of Anthem for Doomed Youth can be found here http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/anthem-for-doomed-youth Discuss how you think Sassoon’s comments helped shape the final poem.
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Poetry Writing from Experience Rivers approves of Sassoon being a writer. He deems it ‘excellent’ that Sassoon will continue to write about his war experiences while at Craiglockart. Brock has asked also asked Wilfred Owen to write as part of his therapy. Until Owen encounters Sassoon, he has avoided the war as a subject. “Prior says that he wants hypnosis. Should I believe him? Or is he merely putting off the dreaded moment of remembering? How do I explain to him that horror is natural? That trauma flourishes in the dark? He struggles to forget his horrors. It’s the English habit. Only Sassoon is different. He struggles to remember his. He cherishes them He runs them through his fingers like a miser. If it were not for his horrors, he would have nothing to write.” (Dr. Rivers in Regeneration, adapted by Nicolas Wright, 2014)
Points for Discussion: What is the function of poetry? To inform? To entertain? To make the writer feel better? Why is it important to Owen that there is a poet at the Front?
Compare and Contrast:
Read Vitai Lampada, written by Henry Newbolt, some years before WW1. It is quoted (and derided) by Billy Prior. Then click on the link to read Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon, and hear it read in his own voice.
Vitai Lampada Henry Newbolt
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night, Ten to make and the match to win A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play and the last man in. And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat, Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame, But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote. “Play up! play up! and play the game!” The sand of the desert is sodden red, Red with the wreck of a square that broke; The Gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke. The river of death has brimmed his banks, And England’s far, and Honour a name, But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks, “Play up! play up! and play the game!”
Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon The Poetry Archive http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/ singlePoem.do?poemId=7098
This is the word that year by year, While in her place the School is set, Every one of her sons must hear, And none that hears it dare forget. This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling fling to the host behind “Play up! play up! and play the game!”
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REGENERATION: EDUCATION PACK
Drama Ideas for exploration from text Read the extract scene below, set on the golf course – the most apparently ‘normal’ of the soldiers, Anderson, is carried away by the hallucination of what he has seen at the Front. In devising your own scene, establish an everyday, domestic, workplace or leisure activity. Think about the characters in that setting and their relationships to one another. One of your characters has served in a war zone. Explore where, within that scene, the shell-shocked person might see similarities which trigger the trauma of war. Explore how to create strong emotion with serious intention. If the first time you share it, it makes people laugh, does that matter? How can you alter that response? How can you find the truth in what you are showing?
Anderson chooses a club and readies himself. Pauses in order to calm down. ANDERSON!
Steady the Buffs.
Apparently calm now, he takes a drive at the ball and completely misses it, or maybe knocks it a few feeble inches in the wrong direction. He stares ferociously at the ball, then at Siegfried. The sky darkens and the rattle of machineguns is heard, along with the distant “crump” of shellfire. Anderson raises his club in the air and, with a cry of attack, advances on Siegfried as though to brain him. Siegfried, who has sized up the situation, puts out his arms and holds him. The scene returns to normal as Anderson gradually recovers and adopts instant denial. ANDERSON!
I don’t know what happened there. Did I slip in the mud?
SIEGFRIED!
Nothing happened. We’ll go to the clubhouse.
ANDERSON!
If you insist. It is a bit warm.
Further Areas of Development and Research From Comedy to Tragedy: The making of Blackadder 4th Series final scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXpOjegSrk The Death of Tragedy, George Steiner, Faber and Faber (reprint 2010)
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