Anthem For Doomed Youth

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH: The Poems and Letters of Wilfred Owen

A Reading Compiled and Performed by James R. Winker

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH is a selection from the World War I poems and letters of Wilfred Owen, a young poet and officer in the British army stationed on the Western Front . In his letters home, Owen made his mother the guardian of his impressions, the raw stuff form which his poems were created. Both the letters and the poems are remarkable for their vivid evocation of trench warfare. They lament a loss of innocence as well as the waste of young lives in ” the war to end all wars”.

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH was originally produced by the Mark Taper Forum as a part of its Sunday literary cabarets. It played at several campuses including UCLA (at the Dickson Art Center), Cal Arts, Cal State Long Beach, Pomona College and the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee. It was also produced at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco as a part of their Plays in Progress series.

Original Production Directed by Elizabeth Huddle
Dramaturgy and Editing by Diana Maddox