Toy Soldier
Entitled to Be Proud
Toy Soldier
by Helen Goodman & Joseph Dewey
Theatre on the River and Stephen Leslie Productions at the Union Theatre, Southwark until 18th October
Review by Gill Martin
We catch the odd phrase of a chart topper. We glimpse snatches of grainy newsreel. We shudder at the sound of heavy mortars, of a ship being shelled, a fireball exploding, lives extinguished.
These are the haunting lyrics of Tears for Fears’ biggest chart hit, part of the soundtrack to an arresting new play, Toy Soldier:
Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back
Even while you sleep
We will find you
Acting on your best behaviour
Turning your back on Mother Nature
Everyone wants to rule the world
The last line and title of this chorus could well be an anthem for war, or at least a reason for it.
And what rang true in 1982 when Britain went to war to secure the Falkland Islands from their brief Argentine invasion still rings true today in most areas of conflict. Everyone wants to rule the world. But Toy Soldier is very much not a war play, but about a family at war and torn by war.
In this taut drama an impressionable teenage boy and his elder sister struggle through the turmoil and terror as family histories and tensions are laid bare. An alcoholic father. A disturbed mother shutting herself away on their sheep farm. And a darkly dysfunctional young man spreading his venomous hate speech in the guise of patriotism.
There’s a lot to unpick in this very tightly constructed play co-written by Helen Goodman and Joseph Dewey. Goodman also directs while Dewey is director of video.
The duo have mined a rich vein of talent in their four actors: Faye Bennett as Jane, the sensitive and caring sister; Matthew Edgar as Billy, whose fraternal ties are stretched to breaking points; Paul Gorman, the dark-hearted glacial-eyed extremist; and Nico Conde, as Alejo, a cowering Argentine soldier who finds himself on the wrong side of battle when Prime Minister Thatcher unleashes her warships and screaming fighter planes in the South Atlantic.
Vittorio Verta and Hannah Calarco both deserve credit for lighting and set design respectively for making a virtue out of discord. We can almost feel the bitter chill of a South Atlantic winter wind sweeping a desolate landscape under constant bombardment.
At times the symbolism is somewhat heavy-handed as young Billy plays with his tiny model soldiers and sees the war in simple terms. The truculent teen in his father’s oversized camouflage jacket vows: ‘I’m going to join the Army to get our island back.’ Would he ever get his chance?
The Falklands still has an impact on Britain. The former Prince Andrew and Epstein pal is remembered for revealing in that infamous 2019 Newsnight interview how his exploits as a conflict pilot there made him incapable of sweating. Last July Argentina’s soccer team broke World Cup convention by unfurling a controversial banner claiming the Falkland Islands, who have voted to remain are a selfgoverning British Overseas Territory, are Argentinian.
“Las Malvinas son Argentinas,” fluttered their flag when the Argentinian team broke England’s heart in the World Cup semi-finals. And only weeks ago Argentina’s President Javier Milei ago announced he was in dispute against the UK to halt oil projects in the Falklands.
This play brings the audience only up to July, 2002, twenty years after the conflict, which cost 907 deaths, when the Falklands were celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee.
It is a time for Jane to pack up the family home. Secrets are revealed, trauma revisited, promises broken and dying moments relived. Cruelty and compassion live side by side, with the harsh reality of those haunting lyrics: Everyone wants to rule the world.
Gill Martin, October 2026
Photography courtesy of Stephen Leslie Productions
