Family objects to Wilfred Owen play scene
The nephew of war poet Wilfred Owen has criticised plans to hold a mock auction of furniture from the Oswestry home the family was forced to leave as 'distasteful and upsetting' .
It is part of plans to stage the musical based on Owen's poetry, Bullets and Daffodils, in the town on March 8 as part of the town's literary festival.
And before the performance, the mock auction will be held in front of the audience at Oswestry Cricket Club.
However the prelude has been criticised by Peter Owen who says excerpts from the ficticious scene paint his family in a bad light.
"I have read the lines and they are distasteful. They mention Susan Owen, Wilfred's mother, who was my grandmother."
Wilfred Owen was born at Plas Wilmot on 18 March 1893, but in 1897 Owen's maternal grandfather, Edward Shaw, died and the family had to sell up to pay debts.
The family moved to Birkenhead and later to Shrewsbury. The poet was killed in France, days before the end of the First World War, and his work is now synonymous with the futility of war.
Musician and writer, Dean Johnson put music to his poetry for Bullets and Daffodils.
Initially it won the support of Peter Owen and the Owen trust, but the inclusion of a scene depicting the auction has been deemed 'tasteless'.
Mr Johnson said: "The script is actually a toned down version of what I have read in biographies.
"The selling of the house and its contents is fact. It's not fiction; it is a dramatic device to show how the Owens came to my home town of Birkenhead. I don't wish to offend anyone by revisiting this sad period of the family's history; I just want to illuminate what made Wilfred the man that he was."
But Mr Owen said he had seen no biographies that portray the auction."I really like Bullets and Daffodils as a piece and Dean knows this.
"But I really do feel that there was no need to include the mock auction."
