Days of Significance - Northern Stage

Days of Significance
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne
4/5
Reviewed by Hedd Thomas, Newcastle Student Radio



“You don't know what to believe in,” exposes a mate to his army friend. But when we're confronted with circumstances so terrible and so unfamiliar, what can you believe in? This is the question at the heart of Roy William's play, his response to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing which, while clearly attempting to provoke our personal conscious as someone living comfortably in a safe country, focuses always on the poignant reality of being a working-class soldier sent to war.

It is the summer of 2006 and the lads are out in town, enjoying their last Friday night together before Ben (Toby Wharton) and Jamie (George Rainsford) head off for a tour of Iraq. The usual antics that accompany a drink-fuelled night out are graphically portrayed: vomit is spewed, urine is sprayed, penises are shown-off, punches are thrown... this is ASBO Central. But love is in the air, too, as both soldiers finally get the girls they've had their eyes on for some time. Out in the desert, it seems like things are much the same only on a different scale: the lads tease each other, the fists and vomit have just been replaced by blood and rifles. Underneath, however, the sights and sounds of war-torn Iraq are affecting the minds of the two love birds. When the tour is over, everything has changed and it is up to Jamie's girlfriend Hannah (Joanna Horton) to try to make sense of the secrets and to unpick the horrible lies from the even more horrible truths.

The strengths of the play lie in its relevance not only to the recent war in Iraq but also to the present war in Afghanistan. The issues raised are ones we cannot hope to comprehend and yet we feel we ought to for the characters' sakes and for our own. The difficulty in understanding these issues is superbly acted by the youthful cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company and especially by Joanna Horton who demonstrates such attention to detail. Maria Aberg's direction is also praiseworthy with slick, effective movement and an acute sense of how best to bring out the character's nature both on stage and in the two film projection scenes. She uses a good amount of comedy to break up what could otherwise be a sorrowful play, although in the final scene it does occasionally seem forced and unnatural. The scenery and lights work well, creating a strangely homely mood to the first and last scene, although this is more due to familiarity than comfort.

This is a powerful and emotive play in a style rarely performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Whatever your views on war and the armed forces, this is sure to make you question your convictions and see that there are two sides to every story.