IT IS EASY TO BE DEAD to Premiere at Finborough Theatre

Commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, the world premiere of It Is Easy To Be Dead by award-winning playwright Neil McPherson opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Wednesday, 15 June 2016 (Press Night: Friday, 17 June 2016 and Saturday, 18 June 2016 at 7.30pm).

Born in Aberdeen, Charles Sorley was studying in Germany when the First World War broke out and was briefly imprisoned as an enemy alien. He was one of the first to join the army in 1914.

Killed in action a year later at the age of 20, his poems are among the most ambivalent , profound and moving war poetry ever written.

It Is Easy To Be Dead tells the story of Sorley's brief life through his work, with music and songs from some of the greatest composers of the period including George Butterworth, Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna, Ivor Gurney, John Ireland, Rudi Stephan and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Sorley is unique among the poets of the First World War. His life and work fits chronologically into the patriotic idealism of the beginning of the war, exemplified by poets such as Julian Grenfell and Rupert Brooke (whom Sorley criticised for his "sentimental attitude"). Perhaps because of his time in Germany before the war, Sorley perceived the truth of war long before his fellow writers, anticipating the grim disillusionment of later poets such as Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg and Siegfried Sassoon.

The cast includes Jenny Lee (West End, Royal Court Theatre, The Young Vic, Royal Shakespeare Company, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Tom Marshall (National Theatre, West End, Royal Court Theatre, Menier Chocolate Factory) and two new discoveries - actor Alexander Knox as Charles Sorley, and acclaimed young tenor Hugh Benson.

Playwright Neil McPherson is Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre. His first award-winning play I Wish to Die Singing - Voices From The Armenian Genocide, commemorating the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, was presented at the Finborough Theatre in 2015, and an excerpt was also performed concurrently in Los Angeles. The script is published by Oberon Books.

Director Max Key returns to the Finborough Theatre following the sell-out world premiere of Year 10 which won the Time Out Critics' Choice Award and transferred to BAC, prior to a European tour. He trained on the National Theatre Directors' Course and works in theatre, film and opera. Theatre includes Up the Royal Borough and Lullaby Burn (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Mariana Pineda, The Turn of the Screw and The Rape of Lucretia (Arcola Theatre), Vote By Ballot and NT Connections (National Theatre), Macbeth (Indian Tour) and Wilde Tales (Southwark Playhouse). Assistant Direction includes assisting Peter Gill on The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre), Sean Holmes on Treasure Island (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Tony Harrison on Fram (National Theatre) and Francesca Zambello on La Bohème (Royal Albert Hall). Film includes Preservation starring Saskia Reeves for Palm Springs International Film Festival and BAFTA.

Max has taught and directed extensively at leading London drama schools including LAMDA and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His productions for drama schools include Cymbeline, The Way of the World, Summerfolk, August: Osage County and Jerusalem. Most recently, Max has revived Tim Albery's production of The Flying Dutchman (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden) and was Associate Director for Peter Gill on As Good A Time As Any (The Print Room).

THEGREATWAR100 series is a new occasional series of works about - or written during - the Great War to be presented by the Finborough Theatre from 2014 to 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

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