Synopsis

What do all sons want most: To look up to their fathers and be proud of them? What do all fathers want most: To give their sons guidance and a better future?

It is the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – a time to remember.

Grandfather Ron Watson still respects and remembers the past.  He honours the memory of his own grandfather – George – who fell at The Somme in 1916.  Ron’s son Stephen is a broken man unable to cope with his ordeal in The Gulf War.  Stephen’s son Darren is nearly sixteen and cannot communicate with his father.  He is on the verge of falling into serious trouble.  Yet, Darren has a secret he cannot confide in his father.  Stephen has a secret and he cannot confide in his son. 

This story covers five generations of one family’s inner conflicts against a background of global conflict.  War can leave it scars upon each generation but the real battle is the torment and shame and frustration they each feel within their own relationships.

Each generation inherits the mistakes of past generations.

Darren meets with a stranger who speaks of the horrors, the loss and the emptiness of war but also of hope; how we are all links in a vital chain and if Darren is to reach his father, he has to take the painful steps into adulthood.

Who is the figure in the half-light who inhabits the shadows and echoes?

Duration

Characters

(5m)

• Darren Watson - 16
• Stephen Watson - 40's, his father
• Ron Watson - grandfather
• Billy Watson - 16, Ron's father as a boy
• George Watson – Billy’s father