Regeneration, Civic Theatre, Darlington


THE power of words to be both harrowing and healing is the underlying theme of this compelling stage adaptation of Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy of novels.
In contrast to most of this year’s crop of First World War anniversary plays,  this riveting drama by the Touring Consortium Theatre Company is set not in the trenches, but in the calming confines of a military psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh where officers from the front are treated for shellshock.  
In a Britain far more buttoned-up than today, the progressive psychologist Captain Rivers (a softly spoken and courteous Stephen Boxer) uses rational argument to persuade men into talking about their experiences, rather than the bullying chastisement and electric devices seen in a brief disturbing scene in a London hospital where the lingering image is that of a silent scream.
The play is based on real life, with Tim Delap as the self-assured poet and critic of the war Siegfried Sassoon opposite novice poet Wilfred Owen, played by Garmon Rhys with a mix of diffidence and eagerness, both creating a sense of genuine friendship with a hint of sexual attraction.
Against a low musical background hum emphasising the interior noises of disturbed minds, the horror of the trenches is graphically revealed in reported accounts that at times turn the stomach.
Intensity builds in conversational sketches accompanied by occasional visual flashbacks to the sights and sounds of the trenches as patients relive a sudden memory, but nothing prepares for the terrifying jolt at the end of the first act.
Humorous counterbalance comes from Jack Monaghan as the fully rounded and endearing Billy Prior, breaking free from mute post-traumatic shock to speak the truth with Northern realism that contrasts with his fellow patients’ upper class reserve.