Exploring military life writing through performance
In May 2025, the UK marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day – the end of World War Two in Europe. In West Yorkshire, two researchers from the University of Leeds took a powerful and innovative lecture-performance on tour to give audiences a moving insight into the experiences of a Greek Cypriot sergeant who became a British Army prisoner of war (POW) in the 1940s.
The project – Memoirs of a P.O.W. – was funded by the University’s Impact Acceleration Account, conceived by Professor Christiana Gregoriou and adapted and directed by Professor George Rodosthenous.
Tailored for all audiences, including school pupils, the unique performance explored themes of resilience, camaraderie, and survival in wartime. It combined academic insight with vivid storytelling and included a 30-minute monologue which drew on a never-before-seen memoir written by Gregoriou’s grandfather, Phylactis Aristokleous.
Read the research storyImpact
- Regional outreach: delivered 14 lecture-performances across six venues, reaching 570 people, including primary and secondary school-aged children
- Knowledge discovery: used performance to grow public understanding of prisoner of war experiences and diversity within Britain’s wartime forces.
Key information
- Major funders: UKRI Impact Acceleration Account
- Partners and collaborators: The Royal Armouries, Eden Camp Museum, the York Army Museum, Theatro Technis
- Disciplines: English, history, performance
- Investigators: Professor Christiana Gregoriou, Professor George Rodosthenous.
This project was sponsored by the UKRI Impact Acceleration Account.
Keywords: wartime, history of war, performance and cultural industries, english, memoir, linguistics, analysis, Cyprus