Sequamur: Style and technique

Sequamur is an English-language play, with a Latin title. It has been translated into Gaelic (by Catriona Dunn) and both the Gaelic and English versions of the play have been performed on stage.

The title of the play is the Latin motto of the Nicolson Institute, which means "let us follow". This is significant as it is specific to the school where the play is set, but also because it related to how the young men:

• followed Gibson's advice to enlist
• followed their orders and died in battle

Donald S Murray explores the themes of remembrance, memory and the futility of war throughout the play, using:

• structure
• narrative voice
• language
• symbolism
• staging and stagecraft

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Sequamur is a one act play, consisting of twelve short scenes.

The play begins in medias res, with Beaton, Mrs Finlayson and Gibson looking at the memorial which is due to be unveiled.

The rest of the play then deals with Gibson encountering the other characters, some in flashback, some in the form of apparitions as he processes what has happened:

• Gibson trying to recall Finlayson
• Gibson remembering the classroom events leading up to the war, in a flashback
• Gibson reading the letters he received from the front line, which creates a different kind of flashback, as the events detailed in the letter are acted out on stage.
• Gibson being visited by the spirits of the young men
• He meets Jessie in the street, badly bruised at the hands of her shell-shocked husband
• The young men return again as ghosts, and MacRae asks Gibson to give the speech
• The unveiling of the memorial and delivery of his speech.

The other characters serve as moments of conscience in their interactions with Gibson, which allows the audience to follow Gibson's change of heart clearly. His ultimate realisation, which is foreshadowed from the very opening scene, is that these young men can be easily forgotten, unless we keep their memories alive.

Gibson's language changes over the course of the play. In the opening scene he is very confident, certain of his own memory and ability, and how he knew all the young men on the memorial:

"Every single one of them. All ticked off and present in the register."(Scene 1)

In his recollections of the classroom, he is similarly confident. He is clearly in control of the class; asking quickfire questions of the pupils, who he refers to by their surname, while also reflecting on the meaning of the quotations they are focused on. He dominates the dialogue, while the pupils seldom answer with more than a few words or a short sentence.

Gibson quotes repeatedly from classical literature, both in everyday speech, and in class. He clearly expects a similar level of knowledge from his pupils. He cuts off Finlayson when he is "too slow" with his answer to a question, and he belittles him when he can't recall this knowledge:

I can't remember? You must have left your brains behind you, clipped from your head like your father's wool." (Scene 3)

In Scene 7, the roles are somewhat reversed. It is Finlayson, Paterson and Campbell who dominate the dialogue, and Finlayson calls Gibson by his surname. The boys are now in the position of teachers, and Gibson is treated as the pupil.

In Scene 6, Mary points out to Gibson that he spends so much of the time talking in quotations ("I should have known - another man's words"). This is crucial, as Gibson is struggling to find his own words for his speech, and as the play goes on, he quotes less and less - the characters he meets along the way throw these quotations that he once used to inspire and persuade back at him.

The boys too use quotations, but they do so to highlight the difference between classical literature and the reality of war. Finlayson and Paterson reframe quotations as questions, as if asking Gibson, and the audience, to question if they are true:

FINLAYSON: "Fortis fortuna aduivat"?

PATERSON: "Fortune favouts the brave"?

FINLAYSON: "This is the one best omen, to fight in defence of one's country?" (Scene 7)

The boys quote from more recent figures, as if questioning Gibson on his understanding of the modern world.

In one of the visitations, Finlayson quotes from Marx, saying "The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the minds of the living" and when Gibson can't remember where the quote is from, Finlayson mocks him, mirroring the earlier classroom exchange:

You must have left your brains behind you in your father's garden this morning, clipped from your head like the dead head of a rose." (Scene 9)

Finlayson also quotes from the Fascist leader, Mussolini. He seems to taunt Gibson, and question the value of being able to remember what someone famous has said, without thinking about who this famous figure was, and the context of their statement.

In the end, the speech Gibson gives is very plain and direct. There is no quotation from Homer or Shakespeare; and there is no arrogance or self-importance. Whereas earlier in the play he, and the spirits who visit him, quote the Latin proverb "Fortis fortuna adiuvat" (Fortune favours the brave), here he turns to the Latin motto of the school, "Sequamur", or "we will follow". As the young men have followed his advice to go and fight, he now asks that those left behind follow them by remembering their duty and self-sacrifice

As Gibson's memories come back to him, and we see the shift in his perspective, he is visited by apparitions of the young men who he encouraged to enlist. Ghosts are used effectively in Sequamur to prick Gibson's conscience and allow him to realise the error of his judgement. This is a recognisable literary device, where a character has something revealed to them, or is haunted by, a spirit of someone they know to be dead.

• Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, where Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth.

• A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, where Jacob Marley appears to Scrooge (and sends him three further ghosts to show him the true meaning of Christmas).

In the case of Sequamur, the ghosts represent the lost young men and how their memory may also be lost in time. The time frame of the play's action jumps between the present of the play, the 1930s when the memorial is about to be unveiled, and events in the past. This is shown through 'real' memories of the boys in school, and events from during the war, reflected in the boys' letters, and scenes in which the boys' 'ghosts' retell what happened to them. By introducing the young men as both remembered people and ghosts, Donald S Murray blurs the line between what is remembered and what is imagined, highlighting that memory and memorials are not straightforward.

Falling leaves are used as a symbol throughout the play. They represent death, and how ephemeral life is.

In the opening scene, Gibson refers to the names on the plaque as "like leaves", and recalls a quote from Homer:

Homer got it right, you know, when he said "Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men".

In Scene 2, as Gibson goes through his letters to try and remember Duncan Finlayson, the stage directions instruct "the letter shown on the backdrop like falling leaves", and again Gibson describes the young men as "like leaves". In Scene 3, the earlier quote from Homer's Iliad is expanded upon:

Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away."

This quote, in the context of the young men who never returned from war is especially poignant as their loss is not in the natural order of things. This is not old leaves representing the old generation dying, this is the loss of young men who had their lives ahead of them. However, life will go on, as it always does and the seasons will return. This passage from Homer is returned to at the end of this scene and later in the play, as the worlds of classical literature and the reailty of war become increasingly intertwined. In Scene 11, Gibson reflects:

When I looked at that plaque, all these young people's names, all that came into my head was how they just looked like leaves lying there. Autumn leaves. Not even former pupils of mine. Not even fellow human beings."

As Scene 12 opens and Gibson stands weakly behind the lectern preparing to give his speech, the stage direction asks for pictures of leaves on the backdrop. Once the speech is delivered, 'petals of poppies shower the audience', as the symbol of the leaves changes to the poppy of remembrance.

The symbolism of war memorials and poppies for remembrance are familiar to us now. The plaque and its unveiling become a symbol of a community's remembrance and of Gibson confronting his past throughout the play.

For the majority of Sequamur, the theme of remembrance and memorial is focused on the plaque and the names of the young men. After the memorial has been unveiled and Gibson's speech has been delivered the stage direction allows the audience to see a version of the memorial:

The screen shows the names of the 148 men who died and where they came from.

It is only after this that poppies, symbolic of loss and remembering those who died in World War One, are shown:

The petals of poppies shower the audience as a piper plays a lament.

Poppies have acted as a symbol of remembrance since 1915. The sight of poppy fields emerging from the churned ground of the World War One battlefields inspired Lt Colonel John McCrae to compose the poem 'In Flanders Fields' which begins:

In Flanders fields the poppies blowbetween the crosses, rows on row

Withholding the imagery of poppies until the very end of the play, increases their impact. Rather than the image of poppies falling on the screen, using physical poppy petals that fall on the audience, Murray brings the audience into the action, inviting them to share in the act of remembering those who died.

By using the symbolism associated with remembrance Sequamur allows the audience to explore this theme more deeply.

Brush up on your understanding of symbolism with this short Higher English revision video.

The play is mostly staged very simply, with few set directions, which allows Gibson's personal and internal journey to be the focus of the action.

There is minimal instruction about specific props (boxfiles containing letters, a newspaper) or set (a desk, rows of chairs) which allows the play to be staged in a variety of spaces, with few demands of difficult or expensive production design.

The play moves through different times and scenes, but there is no suggestion that these settings have to be created in detail. Instead, everything seems contained in the same theatrical space. This adds to the sense that the present day, memories of the past, and scenes from the battlefield are all related and blur into each other.

Murray draws attention to the fact we are watching a play by using the performers to create the changing sets (Pupils enter the room, adding rows of chairs as they do so (Scene 3)), or suggesting that they stray in and out of the staging (From time to time throughout this scene, others enter, looking at what is going on. (Scene 1)), (Occasionally, in this scene, MRS FINLAYSON stands, looking on. (Scene 3)),

In a number of instances, Murray includes very specific stage directions, where these will have a specific impact:

• There is use of a projector on the backdrop, to show the letters of the young men, leaves falling, and their names at the conclusion of the play.
• In the final scene, the other characters assemble a makeshift memorial made from chairs and lay a wreath at it while Gibson is speaking

The final direction in particular is very specific:

The screen shows the names of the 148 men […] who died and where they came from. Where possible, it should also reveal the age and place of origin of those who have died. The platform party bow their heads, a moment or two in silence. The petals of the poppies shower the audience as a piper plays a lament. (Scene 12)

As with earlier in the play in Scene 5, when Morrison and the soldiers 'stand among the audience' and 'act out their movements', the scattering poppies bring the audience into the action of the memorial unveiling in the 1930s, again playing with time and what is real, possibly imagined, and remembered. The screen with the names means the play acts as a real memorial - the names and stories are remembered here.

Revise style and technique, and other aspects of Sequamur by Donald S Murray with interactive quizzes for Higher English.