Rylance and fellow actor Kika Markham will perform dramatic readings from texts which question embedded notions about war, and offer a fresh take on history that might point an end to the conflicts of today.

Wolf Hall actor Mark Rylance will be joined by friends at the Park Theatre for a fundraiser in aid of Stop The War Coalition.

Rylance and fellow actor Kika Markham will perform dramatic readings from texts which question embedded notions about war, and offer a fresh take on history that might point an end to the conflicts of today.

Rylance, who has recently enjoyed a string of Hollywood successes in movies such as Bridge of Spies and The BFG, will read

from American historian and playwright Howard Zinn’s seminal speech Three Holy Wars.

In his 2009 oration, Zinn, who wrote numerous books about the American Civil Rights and anti-war movement but is little known in the UK, questioned the idealisation of what he called three ‘holy wars’ the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars and World War II as “good wars” that cannot be criticised.

Meanwhile Markham, whose late husband Corin Redgrave was also a committed anti-war campaigner, reads from German novelist and screenwriter Erich Maria Remarque’s novel The Road Back. The author of WWI novel All Quiet on the Western Front wrote a 1930 follow up about the experience of young men in Germany trying to integrate back into a morally bankrupt society after serving in the trenches.

Melli Marie, Creative Director of Park Theatre, said: “As a theatre, it is important for us to create the space for all conversations to take place, no matter how uncomfortable, controversial or unpopular. We believe that by bringing Howard’s work to light at Park Theatre we are giving our audience a chance to think about this global issue from a personal perspective.”

Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War, which was founded in the wake of 911,

said: “Howard Zinn spent his life opposing wars and the militarised societies that give rise to them. His body of work is an enduring reminder that it is ordinary people who suffer in wars.”

Myths of War is at Park Theatre, Finsbury Park at 7pm on June 18. Tickets cost £15-£20 and all proceeds go to Stop The War Coalition. Parktheatre.co.uk