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3rd March 2026
★★★★★ review by Backstage Bristol
With first rate direction by Natalie Simone and a cast of outstanding actors from the final year BA (Hons) Professional Acting course, once again Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) shows why it is considered one of the best in the world.
That’s not to forget those working on the technical side of this show. Alexandra Hall’s costume design is excellent, nailing the turn of the century club-wear look.
Andrea Kilgour’s set gives us both historic market town vibes as well as dusty war zone.
The design is complimented by Sol Goddard’s unyielding sound and Kalila Suckley’s lighting
Put together and we have Roy Williams’ 2007 play Days of Significance, which forms BOVTS’ Spring Season.
It’s a piece of theatre that directly explores the impact of the Iraq conflict upon young people.
The three-part play runs through from beginning to end with no interval. It’s a wise creative choice. A break between settings would damage the contrasting dynamics of the piece. With each act snappily shifting to the next, it doesn’t have a chance to lag.
It’s a little over 20 years since the start of the Iraq conflict. It’s a time that is both part of the annals of British and international history and yet its impact still stretches across time and the people it affected.
Countries – like Britain – that sent young men scarcely out of adolescence into conflict makes for a startlingly prescient choice this week.
When the Iraq conflict started in 2003, it was the peak time of Boozy Brits. The working class binge-drinking Britain so beloved by the tabloids. Ladettes. Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezers. Chips nestled in Polystyrene. Lads’ mags. Drunken fighting. Young women unconscious. Shoes scattered across vomit-strewn pavements like a cross between inebriated Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.
The opening act is poetic in its use of insults. Every moment in Act 1 and Act 3 of this production is perfectly staged like a time-based Accidental Renaissance. It’s a glorious watch.
Young men run in packs like rutting stags. They harass women. Mock the police. They fight each other. Urinate in the street. Get slaughtered at Yates’s.
Excellent use of the space around the audience makes us feel like we are immersed in the chaos.
Tobi Grace gives a perfect performance amidst the melee as the police officer trying to manage the simmering tensions and sexual harassment.
Two of these badly behaved young men are going to be shipped to Basra in Iraq the next day.
Albi Dawkins plays Ben. He’s a foul-mouthed, rabble rousing, yet charismatic young man with a hair-trigger temper. His equal is Trish – played by Violet Harvey with the confidence of a veteran actor in a gritty London TV drama.
Dylan McLane is the more sensitive Jamie. The night before he leaves, he confesses his worries to Hannah (Amé Emore).
Though labelled Hannah the Slapper, Emore brings emotional depth to the role, particularly as her character grows to find her place in the world.
Williams compares the drunken violence of Friday and Saturday nights out with the second setting in Iraq.
Duty in Iraq initially seems to be an easy deal to the new joiners. They send video messages home laden with high jinks. It mirrors the Friday night chaos.
Things quickly change however, showing that the young men simply do not have the tools or emotional maturity to cope with the complexities of a war zone.
Two significant incidents change the lives of the men in Iraq. It makes reintegration back into the world they once knew seem an impossibility.
Dylan McLane’s performance of Jamie has been fully informed by the firsthand experiences of a retired soldier who had been deployed to Iraq at the time.
Lucy Alder’s programme notes tell us that men who had gone to Iraq thinking they were invincible returned home a ‘shell of themselves’ – if they were ‘lucky enough to return’ at all.
You can feel the weight of this burden in McLane’s performance.
The final wedding scene is a joy to watch. It’s a typical turn of the century wedding. A raucous affair full of music, drunken singing and party vibes. The hedonistic post-wedding reception miles away from today’s carefully stage-managed Insta affairs. It feels freeing.
The energy fills the auditorium. It’s a lot of fun picking out what the ensemble are up to in the background. Idly making patterns at the table with confetti. Quietly contemplating life with a cigarette. Drunkenly slumped. Eating a sausage roll.
Newly weds Elysia Showan as Clare and Tom Miller-Marshall as Steve are sublime with their drunken antics. The perfect foil for the high drama controversy surrounding Jamie’s return.
BOVTS’ production of Days of Significance really is magnificent. Not only does it both entertain and inform, it’s aways a treat to see the next cohort of top talent striding towards the theatre industry.
Days of Significance runs at The Station until Saturday 07 March 2026
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Kris Hallett – Life as Theatre
