The Unreturning by Anna Jordan

I went to see The Unreturning earlier this year in Oxford. The collaboration between Anna Jordan's fantastic new script and Frantic Assembly's beautiful movement choreography created an incredibly moving show, full of beautifully interwoven stories which were sensitively told, hard hitting and immensely poignant at the same time.

Cleverly set across three different time periods spanning 100 years, Jordan's play explores three men's experiences of war, from WW1, to the war in Iraq, to a future dystopian battle in 2026. The way in which she interlaces their experiences is swift and clever and it reminds the audience of the impact of war off the battlefield as well as on it. The men are damaged by their experiences and haunted by the things that have happened to them. Celebrating 10 years of the Ignition project, The Unreturning explores what it's like to come home after being at war and whether it will ever feel the same.

Seeing the show in performance was a real highlight. This production was exhilarating and the physicality of the performers stunning. The way in which in this show used the cargo shipping container as a piece of moving set to seamlessly connect all three stories was incredibly inventive. If you haven't seen this show you should, but it's just as wonderful to read on its own. What's great about this text from a teaching perspective is that if students are looking to use extracts for a scripted exam performance, there is so much to choose from and there are beautiful monologues from each character to explore.

Time and time again my students come back to the topic of war, as it's something which not only makes hard-hitting and interesting drama, but has so much meaning for them, as young men, knowing that in a different time, or a different political situation, it could have been them going off into battle. And although they have always loved performing war stories from Sherriff and Littlewood, I think Anna Jordan's text is so fresh and immensely thought-provoking, that students and audiences alike explore the impact of war anew through her writing. At the heart of it, she tells a beautiful story of three young men and what happens when they try to return home to their old lives.

It's a poignant reminder of just how much lives can change and how little we still understand about what people go through. It left me wanting immediately to read it all over again.