Unicorns, Almost- Bristol Old Vic ☆☆☆

When playwright Owen Sheers and director John Retallack last brought poetry to the front line the result was the sensational Pink Mist, that played Bristol Old Vic three times and went on two national tours and could play claim to be the most successful new play under Tom Morris’ watch. Unicorns, Almost plays at a much lower key, not only in the comparative stillness of the production when placed against the propulsiveness of Mist but also in the emotion, it evokes within its audience, its gentler tone refusing to burrow in and tear at the heart.

This may be reflective of the poet Keith Douglas, that this biographical work explores. His work was extrospective, discussing external impressions rather than inward emotions and his critics have accused him of bringing callowness to his poetry scribed in the barracks. That doesn’t come across in this 60-minute piece, but a certain coldness does. Douglas’ matter of fact approach to life and death doesn’t allow its audience to get within an arms reach. On the 75th anniversary of his death at Normandy, there is still a sense of a man hidden behind his words.

Sheers work tries to get closer to him. We see the poetic temperament of a man who constantly falls in love, discussing being waved off by his 16-year-old sweetheart or falling into lust with the Spanish/Italian Milena before finding himself spending his last days of leave wooing the literary secretary of TS Elliot. It’s a reflection of a young man whose flame burns briefly, not fully grown into the man of letters he would have likely become if his life hadn’t been cut tragically short at 24.

As expected, Sheers play is awash with beautifully heightened language. It would work wonders as an audio drama, its visuals almost distracting from allowing us to luxuriate in the form Sheers has produced for it. Some bits hit hard, as when Douglas states that his would-be publishers don’t understand that his first collection of poetry could also act as his lifetime work.

Dan Krikler, a Pink Mist alumni, embodies the all Oxford boy who scribbles away on the front line. Softly spoken and delivering the poetry with a good sense of its musicality- as Ben Pickersgill lighting darkens to a blueish hue-and possessing a resemblance to the real Douglas, Krikler manages to portray both the boyish nature of a young adventurer and the hardening nature of a man who has seen too much too soon. He brings his musical theatre background to the role’s physicality, his moments when he takes us onto the dancefloor as he woos is one of the highlights of the production.

A coda talks about a moment when ten years after the poet’s death his Mother goes into a bookshop to find all six copies of his book still on the shelf, unopened and untouched. Douglas states that he hoped his words would allow him to live on. Sheers play brings him back into consciousness. It may not be a piece that shakes you in the way of Pink Mist, but in bringing the words of Douglas to its audience, Sheers has proved a willing literary executor.

Unicorns, Almost plays at Bristol Old Vic until 7 September.

Pink Mist- Bristol Old Vic, Bristol

Originally published on Whats On Stage

This is something really rather special. Owen Sheers’ Pink Mist has already been highly acclaimed first as a radio play and then as a book where it won the Wales Book Of The Year. John Retallack and George Mann’s propulsive production completes the triptych and the staging at Bristol Old Vic elevates it to a higher plane. “Who wants to go to war?” is the cry heard around the playground but what seems like a boy’s own adventure at school soon becomes reality for three boys sent to fight in Afghanistan and the three women they leave behind.

Sheers – perhaps not surprisingly for a poet- has caught the rhythms and cadence; the sights and sounds; the taste and smell, of Bristol and it is this familiarity that takes us by the hand and then sends us unarmed right into the heart of conflict. Pink Mist is the term used for the spray of blood that turns the air to mist after bomb blasts or sniper attacks. For those who fall and those who don’t, life after the battlefield will never be the same.

Blending the evocative language with a physical equivalent and a soundscape that bleeds around the theatre this is the most visceral experience of war I’ve seen since Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. Rather than gung-ho jingoism though, this questions and probes everything, from the authorities who ‘fatten them up’ like cattle being sent to slaughter during basic, to the boys who sign up because there is nothing better for them than shifts at Next. It doesn’t shy away from the brutalities of the battlefields, the 6’4 lad cut down to 4’2 when he loses his legs and a battalion wiped out in a blue on blue attack that would be absurd if it wasn’t so frightening. But Sheers shows that the domestic situations for these men after they return are just as brutal, as the women in their lives – wives, girlfriends, mothers – fight to keep their humanity. “Who wants to go to war?”

It draws universally fine performances from its young cast. Phil Dunster, looking like a young Tom Hardy and possessor of a similar edgy charisma is our main guide through the horrors with Alex Stedman and Peter Edwards his mates who all go to war with a sense of purpose but return as shells of their former selves. Each are thrillingly physically expressive actors, each have bright futures. For the women, Rebecca Hamilton as the girlfriend who can’t comprehend why her man will go back brings the most nuance, Zara Ramm as the mother the most heartbreak but it is the image of Erin Doherty, mouth open wide, with all the terrifying echoes of Edvard Much’s The Scream that will live longest in the memory.

The energy on press night crackled as people realised they were seeing something truly special. Standing ovations at Bristol Old Vic are still rare enough that one that lasted three curtain calls is worth mentioning. Pink Mist may be the most important play of the year. It is certainly one of the best. Surely it’s destined, much likeBlack Watch before it, for a long afterlife ‘‘Who wants to go to war?” After watching this, the answer should be nobody.

Pink Mist runs at the Bristol Old Vic until 11 July 2015.