SQUARE ROUNDS - TONY HARRISON VGC text & musical score

SQUARE ROUNDS -

by Tony Harrison

Directly inspired by events during the Gulf War, this play looks at the history of relations between the East and the West, and warfare in particular. Tony Harrison is the author of "The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus".

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UK - Free Postage

Europe - £2.50

Rest of World - £4.00

An enthusiastic review...

'Whatever can a `square round` be? An oxymoron if ever there was one. The title of Harrison’s verse-play comes form the eighteenth century work of James Puckle who wrote,
“fashioned square rounds
to kill those who scorned Christian norms.
If it’s the cross you revere you get killed by a sphere
but if you face towards Mecca at prayer- - -
the pain you’ll feel is redoubled when bullets are square.”

The play explores one outcome of a particular new discovery, that of synthesising ammonia using chemical methods. Ammonia could be used to manufacture fertilisers that would enable all humanity to be fed, or to manufacture explosives with which to wipe out the human race.

The verse pursues many topics simultaneously, British and German antagonism, racism, colour sensitivity, gender, religious intolerance, some history of warfare as well as human love and respect.

The poetry shows as man lives and his knowledge increases, his instincts remain constant. We are only doing now what the Chinese did one thousand years ago, but our current methods use proven scientific facts.

This is another piece of Harrison’s work in which the author leaves the reader with the question, “ How far have we come – and how far do we need to go? Where is peace? '