Set in 1917, Regeneration is a play examining the effects of shell shock on a group of young men. There is particular focus on two poets who would go on to dominate the war-poetry scene; Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (the latter who wrote the deeply provocative poem Dulce Et Decorum Est).
Sassoon and Owen are admitted to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh as army psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers is tasked with mentally healing the soldiers back to fitness in so that they can return to the trenches in France. Rivers is played by the phenomenal stage actor Stephen Boxer who, although seemingly blunt and detached from his clients, imbues his character with a stubborn sense of care – a difficult quality to replicate onstage.
If there was a member of the audience who did not flinch at this moment, it is because they were most probably in the bathroom.
The inevitable confidence that comes with refined expertise meant that Boxer was, at times, funnier than he intended to be. These moments of laughter shared by the audience pried some heaviness from the theatrical atmosphere and refreshed the mood. However the very nature of the play’s theme: the impact of war, makes it inevitable that the overriding feeling is steeped in gloom. As audience members, we were lured into the darkness of the young soldiers mentally disturbed minds, never made more poignant than in the recurrent flashbacks of Sassoon and another older soldier also staying at the mental institution.
Just before the interval Sassoon hears knocking at his bedroom door. The stage lights have dimmed leaving the audience feeling as vulnerable as the poet. Sassoon goes to investigate before returning to his bed. Upon getting up for the third time he walks directly out of the door to try and ascertain the source of the mysterious knocking. The bedroom door swings closed just as Sassoon re-enters his bedroom and in a flash of bright light, accompanied with a loud bang, a bloodied and muddied soldier appears. If there was a member of the audience who did not flinch at this moment, it is because they were most probably in the bathroom. We later learn from Rivers that this dramatic episode arose from the debilitating guilt felt by Sassoon, having witnessed most of his friends murdered in battle.
The piece held great potential for subtlety: a quality not often thought to exist in theatre.
The scenes in the play were sharp and to the point. The directorial decision to cut them at times, whilst almost seeming premature to the extent of threatening the full fruition of the scene, was one that ultimately strengthened the performance. In this way the audience was forced to consolidate the previous action so as to be able to comprehend the present.
The piece held great potential for subtlety: a quality not often thought to exist in theatre. Subtlety through implication. Given the subject matter, immediate context and main characters involved, more could have been done to allude to both Sassoon’s and Owen’s condemnation of war, juxtaposed within the determinedly patriotic society the play presented. For instance, the over-acting by Garmon Rhys (who played Wilfred Owen) made his character’s intentions so explicitly obvious that it eradicated any possibility of ambiguity in his performance. Thus there was no space for doubt to squeeze in, and it was the doubting of fighting for king and country which was the seed which inevitably blossomed into his hatred of war.
Regeneration is a gripping play that, despite its imperfections, managed not only to move the audience, but also to have a long-lasting and thought-provoking effect.
Tessa Glinoer
Regeneration is running at Theatre Royal until 18th October. For more information see here
