But the play doesn't just stay at home, venturing in its mid-section into the streets of contested Basra. The director, Maria Aberg, does a fine job of putting the feel of the Iraq war, the claustrophobia of house-to-house urban warfare, into the small Tricycle stage. And if the swirling energy sometimes overwhelms individual words and lines, well that scarcely matters in the context. The cast, as you'd expect from the RSC, are an excellent ensemble, in sharp and controlled form.
Roy Williams' script is lightning fast, and you can feel that he loves his characters even if he often doesn't like them, feelings audience members are likely to share. If there's one aspect that grates, it is an odd, much-highlighted succession of references to angels, a theme that just fails to gel.
The ongoing Iraq war is a subject sure to be revisited again and again in coming years, and the definitive "play of the war" has yet to be written. Days of Significance isn't it - but it is an honourable member of the cast.
The production continues at the Tricycle Theatre until March 29.







Article comments