Arachne

By Arachne

Gloom

It's getting easier to escape work before it's completely dark. Excellent.

To the theatre this evening to see The Unreturning, which follows three men returning from war to their home town of Scarborough - in 1918 (Belgium), 2013 (Afghanistan) and 2026 (Britain via a refugee camp in Norway). Of course it's not possible to return to what you left. Nor to return to who you were.

It was a strong piece of physical theatre in an excellent set made of a rotating shipping container, but I wonder whether I've now had enough in my life of being shown that war is a bad thing. Nothing changes my mind; I'm just plunged into gloom. In Yad Vashem and in the Prague ghetto I learnt things I didn't know and I felt I needed to 'witness' what had happened, albeit at several safe stages removed. But do I still need to be told? Does the gloom achieve anything?

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