REVIEW: SOLDIERS OF TOMORROW @ FINBOROUGH THEATRE

🎭 Soldiers of Tomorrow

📍 Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London, SW10 9ED

🗓 Friday 12th June 2026

⭐️ 4 Stars

AN UNFILTERED PINT OF POLITICAL TRUTH

There is nothing quite like navigating London's fringe grid to find a pub theatre that is brave enough to put on a politically charged show that leaves you completely in the dark. I arrived at the lovely, intimate space of the Finborough Theatre with absolutely no idea what to expect from this piece. Given the current global climate, the overarching themes are undeniably controversial.

It is no secret that it has taken a while for the creators to finally find a venue willing to put this play on. The piece carries a heavily complicated history. Its previous developmental iterations sparked severe community tensions, protests, and venue cancellations due to its lightning-rod subject matter. Taking on a project with this much institutional anxiety hanging over it is a massive risk for any venue.

At its core, the plot follows the real-life military conscription of writer and performer Itai Erdal. We are taken through his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), charting his operations during the occupation of Palestine, and layering those memories against the systemic factors that led up to the devastating October 7th attacks and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Because it is entirely based on the writer's life, there is a wonderful honesty about the evening. Erdal possesses a superb storytelling technique that puts you completely at ease while navigating incredibly hard, volatile topics. It genuinely feels as if you are sat in a local pub just listening to a mate recount his life story.

What makes this so refreshing is that the play completely avoids the traps that are common with this genre. These solo political shows can so often feel either incredibly preachy or just sound like a dry, spoken-word Wikipedia summary of historical events. Nothing could be further from the truth here. The script is remarkably succinct and carries a raw, human quality that spears you through the heart. The deep, complicated relationship between Jews and Arabs is faced completely head-on with a beautifully balanced perspective. As the audience, we are not invited to take sides here.

Directorially, the piece finds brilliant footing in its visual metaphors. The use of small plastic toy soldiers and figures to represent the real people and military movements in his stories worked really well, mapping out heavy combat zones in a starkly imaginative way.

This brings me to the technicalities, which were easily the visual highlights of the night. The strikingly painted, colourful abstract map set by Brian Ball paired beautifully with a wonderfully subdued lighting design from Alan Brodie. It created an atmospheric, shifting landscape that effortlessly enhanced the on-stage action without ever crowding the text.

This evocative visual environment is backed by Syrian-born multi-instrumentalist Emad Armoush, who sits to the side of the stage providing live accompaniment. His use of traditional acoustic instruments - like the oud and flute - is intended to deepen the emotional atmosphere of the narrative. If I'm honest I found this incredibly unnecessary, and as the production progressed, the integration of this live soundscape began to take some jarring creative liberties that I felt unintentionally disrupted the overarching realism of Erdal's story.

At one point, the live instrumentation pivots to playing a cover of Nirvana. It sounded so profoundly out of place that it completely shattered the immersion and distracted me from the weight of the narrative. Erdal's words are strong enough to stand entirely in their own right, and this choice unfortunately felt like a bit of a gimmick.

The other element that missed the mark for me was the ending. I want to keep this a strict no-spoiler zone, and while I totally understood what the creative team was trying to achieve conceptually, it just felt like an unwanted addition to an otherwise tight structure. Erdal is such a wonderfully poetic, magnetic storyteller that stripping these production flourishes away would make the finale infinitely more powerful.

Despite my niggles with the musical interference and the final moments, this is a deeply urgent, beautifully acted piece of new writing. It is an upfront, human interrogation of legacy and collective failure that refuses to take the easy way out.

Performances of SOLDIERS OF TOMORROW continue at Finborough Theatre until Saturday 4th July. CLICK HERE to find out more about the show, to check availability, and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair, and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one reviewer.  

My ticket for this performance of Soldiers of Tomorrow was gifted by Finborough Theatre who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given. 

PERFORMERS:

Itai Erdal; Emad Armoush (music)

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 5 minutes, with no interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Discussions regarding the realities of military conscription, the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, the occupation of Palestine, and the war in Gaza; References to the Holocaust; Reflections on guilt, trauma, and watching children die in war zones

AGE RECOMMENDATION:

15+

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