Days Without Dates

When Jessa Wildemeersch was studying at the Actors Studio in New York in 2001, two planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center just a few hundred metres away. Shortly afterwards, Afghanistan was bombed and the invasion of Iraq began. Several years later, Jessa met a Vietnam veteran and was inspired to create ‘Days Without Dates’, a play about the impact of war on individuals and their environment.

In this polyphonic monologue, the author allows us to hear the voices of a range of people affected by recent and less recent conflicts: a woman who worked as a nurse during the First World War, as well as veterans of the Vietnam War and the Second World War. None was able to escape the great economic and political upheavals of their time. The author interviews them, investigates further and tries to understand how the wars they lived through have marked their lives. As the different testimonies are interwoven, it becomes clear that the lasting traumas of war have changed little over the decades.