This young company have taken on a huge and emotive subject here; the plight of young children who arrive in this country as refugees, unaccompanied by adults. It could prove disastrously polemic in less skilled hands, but as written and directed by Dawn Harrison and Rosanna Jahangard and performed by a sixteen strong ensemble of youngsters, it is riveting.Focusing on the tales of Samuel, Lule, Yike and Sofia, who all flee their countries for different reasons for the promised land of Britain, it takes us through the horrendous procedure these kids encounter on arrival on our shores. Not least of their worries is they have to prove they are children and not adults. Variously at the mercy of over-stretched social services, 'boyfriends' more interested in pimping them out ('thirteen hours thats thirty men, one meal, a packet of cigarettes and four bruises') and drug dealers, these young kids soon realise that they are anything but Her Majestys children.In flashback we follow the harrowing tale of how our four young refugees travelled this way, beginning in trucks across deserts, where their money crazed traffickers take away the food they brought with them to make room for more refugees. The overcrowded, water-free trucks are only the beginning of the nightmare, as they encounter unscrupulous boatman and rough seas to swim.The complexities of staging this journey (as well as the small sub-plot of three well-heeled Brits 'travelling' in a gap year) are confronted full on, and a large sheet, ribbons, and some spheres are used brilliantly to create bars, cars, trucks, boats, the sea and much, much more.You might see better acting on the Fringe this year, though some of these young people are rather good, lacking only technical skills like projection and comic timing. What you wont encounter anywhere else is something as real and up to the minute as this brave piece of theatre. It really hones in on how unfair the world is, and how cosseted we are in the West. Whatever the inconveniences and traumas we think we suffer here, they are as nothing to what some very young people deal with on a daily basis. As we all swish around Edinburgh making art and discussing other peoples art, this young company represents the true and valid spirit of what the Fringe used to be about. The character of Samuel is based on a real boy, who actually helped in the construction of the piece. He has now been granted leave to stay here. Last week, however, another of the young people helping on this project was deported back to Afghanistan where he will face punishment from the Taliban.As one of the characters says with simple but moving clarity as the last line of the play:'If its drama youre after you should visit my country'.Ill see you in Brookes Bar later, daaaahlings.
