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'Soldiers has been commissioned for the STC Actors Company as a companion piece to Citizens. Set in an echoing Air Force hangar, family members gather to receive the bodies of their sons, brothers and friends lost in an unspecified conflict abroad. (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
Epigraph: Their souls became cold/ and their wings fell slack. Sappho
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,/ And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more./ Never, never, never, never, never! Shakespeare King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3
Production Details
First produced by the Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre 19 April 2008. Directed by Tim Maddock.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
'Citizens is set at the dividing wall of an unspecified war-torn country where a series of unconnected exchanges between ordinary people transpire as they go about their day-to-day lives. A picture of life is revealed in the fragments of the interchanges between vulnerable people where the human spirit is carefully probed and laid bare.
'Soldiers is set in an air force hangar in Sydney, where family members gather to receive the bodies of their sons, brothers, husbands and friends lost in a conflict that they may not have supported.'
Source: Production blurbs (Kings Cross Theatre production).
CitizensDaniel Keene,
2008single work drama — Appears in:
The Serpent's Teeth : Two Plays2008;(p. 1-26)Citizens is set at the dividing wall of an unspecified war-torn country. Over the course of the play, the fragility and nobility of the human spirit at its most vulnerable is carefully probed and laid bare.' (Publisher's blurb)