Marking horrors of war (From Stroud News and Journal)

Marking horrors of war

AS PART of a month-long tour across the South West, SHAMS theatre company is bringing its outstanding solo show, The Garden, to the Cotswold Playhouse next week.

A timely reminder of the madness of war and its true costs to survivors, the play commemorates the 90th anniversary of the First World War a week before Remembrance Day in a true story inspired by The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

Highly acclaimed last year in both London and at a fringe festivals tour across Canada, this new drama is as entertaining as it is moving, and weaves together high and low technology with great imagination: from playfully using a wheelbarrow as a car, a chair or a ticket booth, to stunning video projections (designed by Oogoo Maia) that transport us into different settings and the lives of half a dozen characters, all played by Jonathan Young.

Aid worker Jay returns downcast from Bosnia, only to uncover the story of his great-uncle Hugh's shell shock, lost love and protracted recovery following World War I.

Desperate to escape his past and unable to confront an uncertain future, Jay breaks down, only to find himself in the restored Victorian garden where his uncle convalesced 75 years earlier.

The play, performed at the Playhouse on Friday and Saturday, November 5 and 6, lasts 80 minutes with no interval. It is not suitable for children under 12. Tickets can be booked at the Stroud tourist office or bought on the door.