Sleeping Soldiers @ C

Sleeping Soldiers tells an important story. It's refreshing to see a production that takes on the issue of the Afghanistan conflict and the American presence without trying to propagandise either way. The statements it makes are simple and are presented honestly and openly for the audience to interpret rather than with a political message that would be too in-your-face to allow the audience to think for themselves. Instead, it just places them in front of you, letting emotion become the most important factor.

The performance combines sound (voiceover and music), conversation and movement pieces, and it is the movement scenes that elicit the most emotion. There's something about watching people's silent pain that is sometimes more emotive than hearing them talk. The original soundtrack that undercuts all this helps too.

The play is by no means perfect, yet its rawness helps its message: the sparse set is scattered with dog tags, branches replace rifles for the soldiers, the Afghani women sleep on one blanket. There is not much of any good out there for anyone. As a Fringe debut, it is a strong one and an important one for anyone to go and see.