War stories

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
Hampstead


Carrie’s War
Apollo

I want to be nice about this play but I simply can’t. Look at the idiotic title for starters. Frank McGuinness sets his drama in an Ulster barracks where a gang of recruits are preparing to fight the Hun in France. The characters, though competently drawn, are a weeny bit predictable. There’s the Belfast bullyboy, the young priest besieged by doubt, the shy kid whose mother is a closet Catholic and the Brokeback Mountain couple whose manful back-slapping hugs are a trifle more enthusiastic than strict camaraderie requires. The most fully realised character, Kenneth Pyper, is a mercurial jester who dominates the barracks with his insouciant rhetoric and unpredictable menace. Is he a bigamist, a fraudster, a fallen aristocrat, a bisexual predator? We await developments keenly.

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