For the Sake of Argument follows the story of Eleanor Hickock, a passionate and argumentative polemical journalist who becomes the Iraq War’s chief evangelist.
This hard-hitting production interrogates the power and danger of language, as one journalist’s words send a young man to enlist for the frontline.
For Eleanor, conversations are a battleground and words are tools for manipulation. Her disputatious stance on the 2003 invasion persuades one reader, Mark, to enlist. When Mark’s mother seeks out the journalist who convinced her son to die for his country, sparks fly and violent confrontations ensue. Eleanor is faced with a family who mourn the loss of a son and a brother and is asked to answer for it.
In our world of clickbait and instantaneous reaction on social media, people formulate entire concrete beliefs based on 240 characters and the headlines of pieces they have barely paid attention to. This play looks to promote the value of compassion and understanding, highlighting the dangers of flippantly taking radical positions on important issues. It discusses the need for full context and warns of the dangers of offhand comments which can become tenants of a belief. It encourages patience rather than knee-jerk reaction.
When: 28th January – 8th February 2020
Where: Bridewell Theatre, 14 Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8EQ
£: Tickets cost £19
More info: www.sbf.org.uk
Leave a comment