The Private misses the farm. The Captain dreams of painting. The Corporal relishes the fight.
And a hundred years later, The Woman seeks to understand.
1916 - In the darkness of the French night, three young soldiers, a private, a corporal and a captain, cross no man's land towards the enemy trench. Stealth is key to their survival and so they walk in silence, with nothing to communicate the thoughts in their heads save for the barest of gestures.
2014 - A woman goes on a day trip to visit the touristic monuments commemorating the Battle of the Somme at Vimy Ridge and the Loghnagar Crater - the site of a mine explosion that killed over 6,000 people - where she encounters remembrance, restaurants and bright, themed gift shops.
Each Slow Dusk is a startling play about action, humanity, and the legacy of war. Immersing you in the reality of conflict through vivid, thrilling detail, it gives you a fresh way of thinking about war - from the past soldiers' perspective to the woman's present-day experience.
Each Slow Dusk was published to coincide with the first production and national tour of the play by Pentabus Rural Theatre Company, in autumn, 2014.
Rory Mullarkey's original plays include Pity, The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court Theatre), Saint George and the Dragon (Royal National Theatre), Each Slow Dusk (Pentabus Theatre/UK Tour), Cannibals, Single Sex (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Grandfathers (National Theatre Connections, then Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre) and On the Threshing Floor (Heat & Light Company, Hampstead Theatre). His adaptations/translations include The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Bristol Old Vic/Manchester Royal Exchange), The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Shakespeare's Globe) and Remembrance Day by Aleksey Scherbak (Royal Court). He has written the libretti for The Skating Rink by David Sawer (Garsington Opera), Coraline by Mark-Anthony Turnage (Royal Opera House) and The Way Back Home by Joanna Lee (ENO/Young Vic). He has won the Abraham Woursell Prize (co-winner 2017), the James Tait Black Prize for Drama (2014), the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (co-winner, 2014), the Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court (2014) and the Pearson Bursary for the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2011).