Jeremy Welch reviews Warriors at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
This production is outstanding theatre, theatre at its very best.
Warriors tells the tale of three soldiers who have recently completed basic training at Colchester and are destined for a six month tour in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
When I first read that this storyline was going to be set to music and opera I just couldn’t visualise camouflaged men singing in the Jebel. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The music is composed and the lyrics written by ex-servicemen thereby bringing a reality and authenticity. The words are beautiful and the score is perfect. The songs bring to life the emotions of the soldiers:- fear, love, brotherhood, desperation and pathos.
This production is not a study in military machismo but a study of humanity and what binds us together. The characters are individually multi-dimensional and when interacting together perform as a perfect unit. The choreography and direction of this play is faultless.
At times amusing and other times quite terrifying as the pitch of the music, combined with excellent acting, takes the audience from moments of laughter to moments of despair and ultimately to a further understanding of the complexity of why people do what they do, out of love, perhaps duty or even just human commitment.
There is not one member of this production that cannot stand tall, the acting is truly outstanding, the dialogue perfect with not a word misplaced, the music and lyrics evocative and beautiful.
As the lights went up at the end of the production I saw at least six people in tears from the emotional ride of this production. This tells you a lot about Warriors.
East Claremont street is slightly, I do mean slightly, off the main beat of the fringe but only a 10 minute bus ride or a brisk 15 minute walk.
My advice? Take a bus, walk, run, hire a cab or rickshaw but get to East Claremont street as soon as possible. This is a production you really, really don’t want to miss.
5 STARS
Warriors is on at Army @ The Fringe – Drill Hall – from August 8-13.
Tickets can be bought HERE.
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