In NIU’s small Corner Theatre, actors gathered to speak words of war, love, sorrow and death.

They are acting out Christopher Markle’s “Shakespeare in the Wasteland,” which will be performed at 7:30 p.m. today and Friday.

The piece was by inspired by Joan Littlewood, a socialist who did theater productions in the 1950s and ’60s, such as “O, What a Lovely War.”

“Wasteland” is a piece about life during World War I. It draws from poets such as William Shakespeare and T.S. Elliot, but also from diaries, poems and memoirs written by common people, said Christopher Markle, an assistant professor in NIU’s School of Theater and Dance.

Markle included a number of musical scenes in the piece because “war gets a theme song now,” he said.

Markle said he wanted to do the piece about war because it troubles him that war is a TV experience. He said he was fortunate to miss being drafted during the Vietnam War. To emphasize the tragedy of WWI, he said many of the millions who died during the war were in their 20s, similar to the student population at NIU.

“Imagine 58 percent of NIU’s students dying,” he said. “That is what it was like during WWI.”

He said he thinks Shakespeare’s work is not about being brainy, but is popular theater, and if people can’t understand it, it’s because of a failure by the actors.

“Today’s student audience is weaned on TV and movies,” Markle said. “They get easy entertainment, but entertainment can be challenging as well.”

During Tuesday night’s presentation of “Shakespeare in the Wasteland,” there were few murmurs when the audience was unable to understand what was happening. However, the majority of the crowd laughed, smiled and showed emotion during the more poignant scenes.