New play about journalism, polemic, the power of words and the very real consequences of publishing, For the Sake of Argument, premieres at the Bridewell Theatre later this month. Check out how it’s coming together in rehearsals, then book your tickets!
Written and directed by Harry Darell, the production runs from 28 January to 8 February 2020.
Eleanor Hickock is a passionate and argumentative polemical journalist who becomes the Iraq War’s chief evangelist. 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.
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.
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.
Have you seen this brilliant @LondonLive interview with our For The Sake Of Argument writer/director Harry Darell? Give it a watch now https://t.co/tGlT4Ko6m7
— Admission Productions (@AdmissionProdu1) January 13, 2020
Performer Ashleigh Cole leads the cast of For the Sake of Argument as Eleanor Hickock. She’s joined in the cast by Georgie Farmer, Greg Snowden, Paula Cassina, Ella May, Arthur Velarde, Harry Eaton-Mercer, Lucia France, Matt Weyland and Harry Farmer.
For the Sake of Argument is staged at the Bridewell Theatre by Darell’s company Admission Productions. They previously staged Darell’s The Gift at Chelsea Theatre in 2018 and created short film Industrious, which ran at the Cannes Short Film Festival earlier this year.
For the Sake of Argument rehearsal gallery
