Tonight:
9°c
Some fares could fall by more than a third when Oyster is extended to every national rail station in London, it has emerged
More...
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Fiona Mountford's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Sebastian Armesto.
Cast: Simple8/Strawberry Vale Productions
Description: First world war-set drama presented by Simple8 Theatre, about a soldier apparently suffering from amnesia and committed to an asylum, with his life once again subject to the notion of no-man's land. Directed by Sebastian Armesto.
Trains: BR: Dalston Kingsland 
Phone: 0207503 1646
Website: www.arcolatheatre.com
Extra info: Pub, Food
The Living Unknown Soldier is innovative but tends towards the repetitive
It is an intriguing and unsettling idea. Why must all unknown soldiers be dead? Why couldn't a combatant return from war physically but not mentally, and then spend the rest of his life trying to rebuild a fractured identity?
Using the book by Jean-Yves Le Naour as inspiration, vibrant young company Simple8 have concocted a drama about just such a soldier who arrives demobbed and amnesic at a French railway station in 1918.
Multiple actors play the virtually silent central character, a device that perfectly suggests a blank canvas onto which the world can project its own expectations. Endless families come forward to claim the soldier - the repetitiveness of which can't help becoming cumbersome to Sebastian Armesto's production - whose humanity crumbles a little more each time he is gawped at and argued over.
Still, assured turns from the eight-strong ensemble, including Tom Mison as an amusingly insouciant journalist, keep us focused on this quiet casualty.
• Unknown Soldier, until 15 March (020 7503 1646, www.arcolatheatre.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
