Professor David Peimer
Gallipoli (1915): Churchill’s Disaster?
Summary
The Battle of Gallipoli was a defining moment in World War I. In response to the horrors of war, Winston Churchill asked, “Are there not other alternatives than sending our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders?” The second front was then created in Gallipoli, resulting in catastrophe. Although it was not his idea, Churchill was ultimately blamed for the disaster. In this lecture, David Peimer examines what really happened, exposing the incompetence, political intrigue and hubris among leadership in the Allied Forces and how they influenced World War II. He also explores the portrayal of the historical event in the 1981 film, “Gallipoli.”
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.