Shakespeare and Company

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• A Scalding Look at the Thirty Years' War

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Mother Courage and Her Children Shakespeare & Company 70 Kemble Avenue Lenox, MassachusettsYou think our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted a long time? In Europe three hundred years ago, they had wars.

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• When Does a War End for the Veterans?

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Heroes Shakespeare and Company 70 Kemble Street Lenox, MassachusettsWhen does a war end for the men who fought it?That’s the question in French writer Gerald Sibleyras play Heroes, translated by Tom Stoppard, which just opened at Shakespeare and Company in the Berkshires. The setting is 1959 somewhere in France. Three veterans of World War One, Phillipe, Gustave and Henri, reminisce about the war every day on the veranda of the Old Soldiers home where they live. Henry has been there 25 years and Phillipe ten. Gustave arrived six months ago.Sibleyras’ fine play seems slow moving and tepid at first. It appears to be the story of three perfectly harmless and lovable old men spending their golden years glorying in their wartime heroism long ago, cheered by all. As the minutes slip way, though, you see them as badly damaged individuals whose problems grow as each day passes. They don’t do anything well except re-fight World War One and act as much as soldiers as they can remember.