TOY SOLDIER
Union Theatre
★★★
“Its detailed design, inventive use of space and thoughtful sound work demonstrate considerable theatrical imagination”
Toy Soldier creates a striking physical world in which memory, family and the legacy of conflict collide. Set against the aftermath of the Falklands War, the play follows Jane as she returns to the family home, where the past she has tried to leave behind gradually resurfaces.
The production’s greatest strength is its attention to detail. The set (Hannah Calarco) creates a convincingly run-down back garden, with hay scattered across the ground and rough cloth used to block draughts and cover gaps. These small touches make the environment feel lived-in rather than merely decorative. The lighting (Vittorio Varta) is equally effective, shifting the audience’s focus and marking the passage of time with considerable subtlety. Sound is also used intelligently, particularly in the treatment of the soldier’s damaged hearing: a portable cassette player that has deteriorated into little more than static becomes a simple but evocative reminder of the lasting effects of war.
The video design is ambitious, incorporating extensive real archival material. The production also makes imaginative use of the entire performance space. Voices emerging from different parts of the auditorium and from above expand the world beyond the central playing area, allowing changes of location to be communicated without conventional scene changes. It is an inventive piece of direction (Helen Goodman) that makes the most of the space available.
However, some of these strong design choices are undermined by questions of scale and clarity. The toy soldiers are so small that they are difficult to see, while much of the archival footage projected onto the wooden walls of the set is similarly hard to make out. Given the production’s already imaginative use of projection, larger-scale or more deliberately constructed imagery could have amplified the psychological dimension of the material rather than leaving some of it visually indistinct.
The greater difficulty lies in the writing (Helen Goodman and Joseph Dewey). The considerable amount of archival material does not always feel sufficiently integrated with the dramatic narrative, sometimes creating a disjointed relationship between historical documentation and the story unfolding on stage. The dialogue also lacks enough narrative clarity to consistently anchor the audience, making the central story harder to follow than it needs to be.
The performances similarly struggle to give the characters enough specificity. The actor playing Jane (Faye Bennett) sometimes appears to be signalling her character’s age rather than allowing her experience, care and anxiety for her brother to emerge naturally through the text and physical behaviour. The portrayal of her younger brother, Billy (Matthew Edgar) can feel similarly externalised: rather than consistently suggesting a believable seventeen-year-old, the performance leans heavily into childish mannerisms, occasionally making him seem considerably younger than the character is intended to be.
Toy Soldier is therefore a production where the physical world is often more compelling than the drama within it. Its detailed design, inventive use of space and thoughtful sound work demonstrate considerable theatrical imagination, but the archival material, writing and performances do not always connect with the same precision. There is much to admire in its construction, even if the story itself never quite finds the clarity or emotional weight its subject deserves.
TOY SOLDIER
Union Theatre
Reviewed on 5th October 2026
by Sammi Xing
Photography by Dave Bird
