HAMP : C too, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
KCS Theatre Company brings John Wilson’s Hamp to C too, arguably one of the most important plays about the pity of war ever written. Arthur Hamp, shell-shocked and witless, crawls out of a shell-hole at Passchendaele during World War I and walks away from battle. He is court-martialled for desertion in the face of the enemy, and it is decreed: he has to meet a death as unceremonious as the Army can make it. He is shot by his friends; ‘the worst bloody thing ever.’
Today posthumous pardons have been granted to all 306 British soldiers, suffering from shell-shock, who were shot for desertion. The tireless campaign by SAD (Shot At Dawn) has at last been rewarded.
Hamp addresses the subject of cowardice and shell-shock and is a poignant reminder of the horrors that thousands endured in war. A play,simply told, of extraordinary power.
Under the artistic directorship of Philip Swan, KCS Theatre Company has enjoyed extraordinary critical success in Edinburgh and the unique privilege of a commercial London West End transfer in 1996 for John Logan’s Never The Sinner. Following a sell-out run in 2004 with Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy, we return with a play that deals with military discipline when at war, an issue that is timely and pertinent
Sunday 20 Aug to Monday 28 Aug at 2.20pm (1h30)
Venue: C too, venue 4, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Ticket prices: £ 8.50 / concs £ 7.50
Venue box office: 0870 701 5105 / www.CtheFestival.com
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / www.edfringe.com
Further information and photos are available from:
Philip Swan at KCS Theatre Company on 07702588856/ email t.brown@think-studios.com or
the C venues press office on 0845 260 1060 / email press@cvenues.com
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