John Wilson’s military courtroom drama will be seen in London for the first time in over 30 years this summer to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. For King and Country follows a soldier’s court martial for desertion and the struggle of his defending officer to acquit the young man in the face of bureaucracy and his own naïve honesty. Many years before PTSD was officially recognised, it explores the brutality of war and what happened to the men who could take no more. The play was originally performed as Hamp at the Edinburgh Festival in 1964 by a cast including Leonard Rossiter, John Hurt and Richard Briers, and was adapted into the BAFTA-nominated film King and Country.
For King and Country is at Southwark Playhouse 28th June – 21st July 2018.
