MAW Remembrance Lecture for 2023.
The role of the arts and culture in promoting peace and opposing war
Fifty people were privileged to hear Michael Mears in full flow, showing us the power of the spoken word as well as of song, art and music to move the human spirit towards peace, as he gave the 2023 MAW Remembrance Lecture in the lovely auditorium at the Oasis Hub in Waterloo.
You can see the video of the event: https://abolishwar.net/wp-content/uploads/vimeo_embed.html
The illustrated text of his talk is available in this file: https://abolishwar.net/wp-content/uploads/MAW-LECTURE-by-Michael-Mears-November-2023-v2.pdf
Michael has had a rich and varied career in theatre, television and film – including seasons with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Peter Hall Company, portraying many classical and Shakespearean roles. He has also worked in many of the UK’s regional theatres as well as performing in London’s West End on a number of occasions.
But he is perhaps best known as an award-winning performer of his own original solo plays for theatre and radio.
He has performed This Evil Thing (2016), a solo play which tells the inspiring story of the men who said no to war, more than 100 times in many venues in the UK and in the eastern USA.
The play tells the story of Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers of his time, and Bert Brocklesby a young school teacher and Methodist preacher in south Yorkshire, who both, in their own ways, resisted conscription. In the play, what happened to them and to a host of other characters is brought to life by Michael – partly using verbatim testimonies.
Last year, The Mistake, his play about Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb, a play for two people, was mounted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has since played in London. It is due to tour UK-wide this autumn.
For more information about this tour and about Michael go to
