28 February – 7 March

As the Middle East yet again descends into chaos, The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School can surely have had no idea just how topical, how poignantly timely, this production of Roy Williams’ Days Of Significance would prove to be. Directed by Natalie Simone, and featuring a talented cast of fourteen young actors, it first depicts a group of lads and lasses from Chatham giving a wildly drunken farewell party to two of their number, who are about to be despatched to serve in Iraq. In Andrea Kilgour’s simple but effective set design, broken walls initially signify a downtrodden urban area, and later, in the second section, they represent a landscape fractured by war.

One’s senses and sensibilities are assaulted from the get-go. At the party the music is loud, the language is frequently obscene, and the behaviour is far from decorous, featuring vomiting, urination and literal willy-waving. This is a social milieu where anyone aiming for higher things is instantly condemned: ‘Going to college – the ponce.’ Initially comic, the action becomes more edgy, more dangerous as drink takes hold. The performances are bravely uninhibited, but not without subtlety, for there is a palpable sense that all the noisy bravado and aggression is a smokescreen, hiding fears and vulnerability.

The first section of Days Of Significance is structured like Much Ado About Nothing, and the morally strong Hannah (Amé Emore) and sensitive Jamie (Dylan McLane) are in some ways like Hero and Claudio.  As in Much Ado, these two young lovers must negotiate apparent betrayal and separation before tentatively reaching reconciliation. They find a moment alone, and their nervous, cautious dance, culminating in a kiss of mutual acceptance, is a moving respite from all the boozy posturing going on elsewhere. In contrast, Trish (Violet Harvey) and Ben (Albi Dawkins) are the Beatrice and Benedict of this play, and far from romantically inclined. Trish is combative, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, the epitome of a ladette, matching the boys in confrontational sexuality. She and Ben have none of Hannah and Jamie’s tenderness.

Jamie and Ben are the two young soldiers, and they seem keen to go, though their understanding of the complexities of the Second Gulf War is perhaps somewhat limited, summed up in the assertion that ‘Saddam’s a c***.’ The partying descends into violence, and the police become involved. The irony of tasking often drunken, law-breaking and far from worldly-wise young men to bring order and control to a foreign country beset by anarchy is inescapable.

In the second section of the play, set in Basra, the harsh realities of war reveal Ben to be capable of heartless savagery, rationalising his shooting of a young boy who posed little if any threat by ‘othering’ the entire Iraqi population: ‘They’re all the same – that’s how you’ve got to see them.’ Sol Goddard’s very effective sound design, together with Kalila Suckley’s lighting, serve to create a tense atmosphere of tension and imminent danger, as the soldiers face a deadly attack from insurgents.

The final section of the play is set back in Chatham, where a wedding celebration is underway. There are very funny speeches, and there is much drunken merriment – Elysia Showan is wonderfully convincing as Clare, the totally bladdered bride – but there is a spectre at the feast, for only one of the soldier boys has returned alive. There are painful issues that remain unresolved. It is perhaps too drawn out with a concluding coda that focuses back upon Hannah, and her hesitant aspirations towards a better, more fulfilling life. This brings a positive note to the end of the play, but sits rather uncomfortably with what has gone before.

This fine production of Days Of Significance leaves one punch-drunk from its visceral impact, but it also raises important questions about a wide range of thorny issues, not the least of them being the morality, or otherwise, of sending young men off to war.  In turns comic, shocking, tragic and, eventually, hopeful, it is blessed with superb performances from its young cast. Bravo!

★★★★☆. Mike Whitton, 4th March 2026

Photography credit: Craig Fuller