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Home > Theatre > The devastating impact of chemical warfare in Square Rounds

The devastating impact of chemical warfare in Square Rounds

By Caroline King - September 1, 2018Posted in : FEATURED-STORIES, Theatre

Square Rounds - Finborough Theatre, London When: 4th – 29th September 2018

Where: Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED

£: Tickets cost £18 or £16 for concessions until Sunday 16th September and then £20 or £18 for concessions

What is it?

This autumn, Proud Haddock will bring Tony Harrison’s lyrical play, Square Rounds, to the Finborough Theatre in London, for its first UK production in nearly 30 years since its rediscovery. With an all-female cast, the play will take place from Tuesday 4th to Saturday 29th September.

Based on true events, this original play explores the devastating impact of chemical warfare and weapons of mass destruction. In the year that marks the centenary of the end of the First World War, this revival has never been more timely.

Performed entirely in verse, Square Rounds follows the lives of Fritz Haber, a German Jewish chemist, and American inventor Hudson Maxim, brother to Hiram Maxim (the inventor of the machine gun). Through their experiences, this play will shine a light on the intricacies of escalating tensions between nations in the build up to the First World War.

Fritz has been ordered by the Kaiser in Germany to develop a deadly poison gas to help Germany win the First World War but Hudson is concerned for his country, his brother, and the frightening technological advances employed by America’s new European enemies. Believing his new invention will be an opportunity to escape his status as an outsider in German society, Fritz is unaware that his work will go on to be used to exterminate his own people in the Holocaust just 25 years later.

Proud Haddock celebrate unearthed stories from classical playwrights. Previous productions include The Dog Beneath the Skin (Jermyn Street Theatre), the sold-out hit Mrs Orwell starring Cressida Bonas and Peter Hamilton-Dyer (Old Red Lion Theatre, Southwark Playhouse), and The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus and A Subject of Scandal and Concern (Finborough Theatre).

More info: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

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Tagged With: Finborough Theatre, London, London theatre, Proud Haddock

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