Britten and MacNeice's Dark Tower: recreating a visionary radio landmark

Written in 1945, Louis MacNeice’s play delves into the trauma of war and the poet’s personal shadows, and was an inspired collaboration with Benjamin Britten. Now Robin Brooks is set to restage the iconic first broadcast

Louis MacNeice was – in his own words – “in a state” when he wrote The Dark Tower. It was the autumn of 1945 and the poet had been through the war and seen his share of horrors. Despite being a non-combatant, he had experienced and reported on the blitz, cutting his BBC radio teeth on dramatised features with a “London can take it” theme. He’d lost friends, in particular his school friend Graham Shepard (son of illustrator EH). Graham’s death, in the battle of the Atlantic, had a profound effect on him.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2yPBrwD