At All Costs

Veteran actor Peter Terry plays the fictional character of David Wells, who fought and was wounded at the Battle of Delville Wood as a 19-year-old youngster in 1916. When he reluctantly
returns to the Wood in 1970, all his nightmares are reawakened, and he finds himself reliving the Battle in minute-by-minute detail.

Duration ± 45 minutes

“At All Costs is a genuine contribution to understanding history and is a masterpiece
of both writing and performance.”

Vincent Carruthers, author and historian
“This is a play in which one man stands on stage, flanked by nothing more than a
chair and a simple map of a location where of men died to protect a conceptual,
strategic idea of victory – AT ALL COSTS. Nothing more than those simple props
and Terry’s excellent, passionate acting is needed.”

Bruce Dennill, theatre critic

"more than one elderly man’s memories of hell beyond description, this work,
with its crisp and tight language, with its descriptions so bold and direct that you
can smell the stench of war and see the birds on the wing in a virgin forest, reaches
into the heart of everyman.”

Robyn Sassen, theatre critic

“Peter Terry’s character David Wells lives to carry the scars of the fallen men at the
Battle of Delville Wood in 1916. The dead are etched in his brain and they pulsate,
creating haunting memories with which he lives. For David Wells these ghosts
manifest in his sleepless nights; and even if he does fall asleep it is their voices that
hauntingly make him talk in his sleep.”

Ismail Mahomed, Director: Centre for Creative Arts, University of KZN