Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun
by John McGrath
by John McGrath
Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun depicts six soldiers at a British Army base grappling with boredom and frustration under an inexperienced leader during the early Cold War.
About The Play
About The Play
THIS PRODUCTION IS NOW COMPLETELY SOLD OUT INCLUDING THE EXTRA PERFORMANCE BY POPULAR DEMAND ON WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2012 AT 3.00PM
For details of our Returns Policy for sold out performances, please click here
★★★★★ Five Stars, The Guardian
★★★★★ Five Stars, WhatsOnStage
★★★★ Four Stars, One Stop Arts
★★★★ Four Stars, Exeunt Magazine
★★★★ Four Stars, Fulham Chronicle
Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of playwright John McGrath, and unseen in a professional production in London since 1966…
Germany, 1954. A bitterly cold winter in the early years of the Cold War. In a wind-swept corner of a British Army base, six soldiers are posted to guard an obsolete anti-aircraft gun. Their task is futile and the gunners know it. Placed under the command of an inexperienced teenager, their boredom turns to frustration and their thoughts turn to trouble as the banter and squabbles of the barrack room harden into a battle of wills between a callow NCO who just wants to serve out his time and a disillusioned fighting man with his finger on the self-destruct button…
Directed by acclaimed new emerging director Robert Hastie, John McGrath’s startling, darkly comic depiction of young men coming to terms with a new, inhuman era of warfare is based on his own experience of National Service in the 1950s. Originally produced at Hampstead Theatre in 1966 with a cast including James Bolam, Barry Jackson and Brian Murphy, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun was filmed in 1968 by Jack Gold as The Bofors Gun, starring David Warner, Ian Holm, Nicol Williamson and John Thaw.