Details

In Just So, Robert uses stories and poems from throughout Kipling's life to reflect the way in which the writer became one of the great chroniclers and spokesmen of his time. Accompanied by Christine Croshaw on piano and Clive Conway on flute, the play explores the different worlds inhabited by the renowned storyteller and poet through his autobiographical writings and verse. The evening charts Kipling's traumatic childhood years, his seven years in India as a journalist honing his writing skills, the early years of married life in Vermont, his time as a war correspondent in South Africa before the final years when he settled in Sussex and explored English history. Just So will conclude by revealing Kipling's fascination with England's heritage, which he illuminated with poems and verse inspired by events from Roman times onwards. It will be paralleled with his increasing concern over the fragility of the English way of life and his idea that a form of Armageddon was approaching the country. His fear was ultimately realised at the outbreak of the First World War after which Kipling worked extensively with the Imperial War Graves Commission.

Cast/Performers

Robert Powell