IN this centenary of the beginning of the 'war to end all wars' we are rightly reflecting – hopefully with shame still - on the absolute carnage and sacrifices made by the millions of (mostly) young people killed and maimed; a conflict propelled by largely imperial design.

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword yet in that actual time of madness the achingly tormented – yet beautiful - poetry of such bards as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, both serving officers, merely confirmed the horrors, the words written metaphorically in blood.

Their mesmerising observations, literally from the scorch of battle, and their subsequent affinity, are explored and defined in this powerful two-hander directed by Tim Baker with flair and obvious empathy with Owen's comment that "all a poet can do today is warn".

At the time few knew of his agony and rage penned with passion; now he is esteemed.

The award-winning Not About Heroes by Stephen MacDonald is not an easy encounter for audiences even with Owain Gwynn as Wilfred Owen and Daniel Llewelyn-Williams as Sassoon offering a compelling portrayal of the two poets.

The subject matter is too harrowing to allow any comfort and the depiction of strife, and the two men's distress and contempt for the leadership of both sides, infuses an unrelenting melancholy to the performances.

The evocative set featuring a bed and a desk, with a backdrop of starkly lit bare, shell ravaged tree stumps and barbed wire, is mostly located at the Craiglockhart war hospital near Edinburgh where Owen first met Sassoon.

It is dynamic in its sparseness in the same way that the dialogue and poetry deployed underlines the very vacuous nature of the encounters in France that both knew so well. Owen was tragically killed only days before the Armistice, and Sassoon wounded twice.

The play itself - both wordy yet worthy - tracks the way in which the men forged their friendship and mutual respect as each tried to portray the utter folly of war whilst commenting on the exhausted camaraderie of those ordinary men – and women - engaged in it.

It is not a production for faint hearts; but then neither is war.

Not About Heroes is at the Emlyn Williams Theatre at Clywd Theatre Cymru, Mold, until Saturday, November 29.

Tickets are from the box office on 01352 701521.