Rowan Tree Theatre Company continue their 21st birthday season with a tour of Not About Heroes by Stephen MacDonald which opens with two preview performances at Bowhill Theatre, Selkirk on Friday 17 and
Saturday 18 October. The tour will play at venues throughout Scotland from Hawick, to Shetland and finishes at the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, on Saturday 22 November.

Stephen MacDonald covers the story of the two poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in a script of great craftsmanship and fine writing.

Not About Heroes is sponsored by House of Hearing. Stephen Fairfield,  Managing Director of House of Hearing said: "House of Hearing have been helping people to hear in the Scottish Borders for nearly 40 years. We are delighted to support the Rowan Tree Theatre Company in this their 21st Season."

Owen and Sassoon are perhaps the best known of all the First World War poets. Yet the former might never have reached his full potential had it not been for their friendship, forged at Craiglockhart Military  Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Stephen Macdonald’s play charts that friendship, and Owen’s emergence as one of the most poignant voices of  that war, and of all wars.

Reading Owen’s own poems, Sassoon found not just a kindred spirit but a poet of tremendous brilliance. The friendship blossomed as did Owen’s poetry and in one especially memorable scene the two men work
together on Anthem for Doomed Youth. 

Both men go back to the war. Sassoon receives a head wound that will keep him away from the front line from then on: the two men meet again as he is recovering. Owen is killed one week before Armistice Day, aged 25. The church bells are ringing in thanksgiving for the war’s end when the telegram arrives at his parents’ home. 

John Haswell – Director. ‘This is a story of two poets. It is also a story of two men, of their friendship and their emotional release. It  is a story of its time. It is also a story that resonates with contemporary male identity. It is, above all, a human story. This is not a play about poetry; it is a poetic play about two men.’

Stephen MacDonald is a director and actor as well as a writer. His earlier plays, produced by the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, were All Ayre and Fire (a Fringe First winner), Billy Budd and The Jungle Book,. He adapted Sassoon’  s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man for BBC Radio in 1986. He directed his  own version of Uncle Vanya for a UK tour in 1990, and also wrote In the Summer of 1918 (BBC Radio 4 and Volute Productions, South Africa). 

Both the actors began their careers with Borders Youth Theatre. Oliver  Bisset (Siegfried Sassoon) trained at Fife College and the Welsh  College of Music and Drama and worked with Cascade Theatre in  Education Company in Cornwall before returning to the Borders. Since then he has been a workshop leader, assistant director and director with Borders Youth Theatre. 
 
Matthew Burgess (Wilfred Owen) has taken part in many youth and  community theatre productions including Shakespeare at Traquair and  the Millennium production of The Thrie Estaites . He has appeared in  many of Rowan Tree’s productions, including The Puddock and the  Princess, Confessions of a Justified Sinner and The Love Adventures of  Mr. George Cochrane, as well as working on the technical side in other productions. 
 
Not About Heroes is directed by John Haswell who is one of the leading  practitioners of theatre for young people in Scotland. He founded and was Artistic Director of Borders Youth Theatre, to which he returns  regularly to direct productions. He is currently Artistic Director of  Shetland Youth Theatre, and also Drama Development Officer for 
Shetland Arts. Design is by Gregory Smith who has designed over 150  shows, many of them for the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, where he has  worked extensively with the writer Stuart Paterson. He designed and  created the set and costumes for Rowan Tree’s production of Barry. The  music has been composed by Ian Lowthian who composed and recorded  (along with Hilary Bell) the music for The Four Horsemen, and toured with the company in War and Glaur. 
 
Press Night: Thursday 23 October at Tower Mill, Hawick. For press 
tickets, images and further information please contact Patricia 
Hitchcock.admin@rowantreetheatrecompany.co.uk or tel: 01835 870761 or  07813  804097 
 
Listings Information: 
Date/time: Friday 17 & Saturday 18 October 7.30pm 
Venue: Bowhill Theatre, Selkirk 
Tickets: ￡9/￡7 (conc) 
Box Office: 01750 22204 
 
Date/time: Thursday 23 October 7.30pm 
Venue: Tower Mill, Heart of Hawick 
Tickets: ￡9/￡7 (conc) 
Box Office: 01450 360688 online www.thebooth.co.uk 
 
Date/time: Friday 24 7.30pm 
Venue: The Wynd, Melrose 
Tickets: ￡10/￡8 (conc) 
Box Office: 01896 820028 
 
Date/time: Saturday 25 October 7.30pm 
Venue: The Maltings, Berwick-upon-Tweed 
Tickets: ￡8.50/￡7.50 (conc) 
Box Office: 01289 330999 
 
Date/time: Wednesday 29 October 7.30pm 
Venue: Buccleuch Centre, Langholm 
Tickets: ￡10 
Box Office: 01387 381197 
 
Date/time: Thursday 30 October 7.30pm 
Venue: The Hall, Coldingham 
Tickets: ￡7 
Box Office: Book Shop/Dave Jones 01890 771852 
 
Date/time: Friday 31 October 7.30pm 
Venue: Wauchope Hall, Town Yetholm 
Tickets: ￡7 
Box Office: Village Shop 01573 420366 
 
Date/time: Saturday 1 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Village Hall, Walkerburn 
Tickets: ￡7 
Box Office: Post Office 01896 870205 
 
Date/time: Tuesday 4 – Friday 7 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh 
Tickets: ￡10/￡8 (conc) 
Box Office: 0131 556 9579 
 
Date/time: Saturday 8 November 7.00pm 
Venue: Craiglockhart Campus, Napier University 
Tickets: Free 
Box Office: 0131 455 6027 
 
Date/time: Tuesday 11 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Town Hall, Jedburgh 
Tickets: ￡7 
Box Office: TIC 01825 863435 
 
Date/time: Friday 14 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Eastgate Theatre, Peebles 
Tickets: ￡10/￡8 (conc) 
Box Office: 01721 725777 
 
Date/time: Saturday 15 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Village Hall, Smailholm 
Tickets: ￡7 
Box Office: Smailholm Pottery 01573 460666 
 
Date/time: Wednesday 19 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Walls Public Hall, Shetland 
Tickets: ￡8/￡6 (conc) 
Box Office: Shetland Arts 01595 743843 
 
Date/time: Thursday 20 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Scalloway Public Hall, Shetland 
Tickets: ￡8/￡6 (conc) 
Box Office: Shetland Arts 01595 743843 
 
Date/time: Saturday 22 November 7.30pm 
Venue: Lemon Tree, Aberdeen 
Tickets: ￡10/￡8 (conc) 
Box Office: 01224 641122