The "blurb" on the back cover of R. H. Thomson's The lost Boys: Letters From the Sons in Two Acts states "If only history could be taught this way." My paper will address the "teaching" of history in three contemporary plays about the First World War which appeared in 2001: R. H. Thomson's The Lost Boys: Letters From the Sons in Two Acts, Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding, and David French's Soldier's Heart. In each of these plays, a young person--Man/Boy in Thomson; Mary in Massicotte; and Jacob in French, attempts to learn about either their great uncles', their lover, or their father's experiences at war. Both Thomson's and Massicotte's are "dream journeys": Thomson attempts to, as the back cover also states, "bring to light the men hidden in a collection of 700 family letters" from "five brothers," whereas Massicotte's is primarily a love story thwarted by the advent of war. French's more "realistic" play tells of two brothers' tragic struggle at the Battle of the Somme.  My paper will begin with a brief summary of the interviews with these three men (all at various stages of their careers) conducted in newspapers and on radio/television which provide reasons why they turned to the Great War for their subject material. It will then compare/contrast the three plays' attitudes to war, the military, patriotism, the colonial mentality, the aftermath of war, and women contained within these dramas.