THIS Royal Shakespeare Company production of Roy Williams’ bleak but brilliant play could not be more apt.

It opened in Poole on the very day that the news was dominated by a grieving mother’s fury at the lack of support for British troops overseas.

That was Afghanistan. Williams’ play is about Iraq. It makes little difference, for it deals superbly with the slaughter of youth and the massacre of ideals that occur when you send young soldiers to war.

Using elements of Much Ado About Nothing, this hard-hitting drama explores the boozed-up bravado of Jamie and Ben, two young squaddies about to be dispatched on active service.

In a chaotic evening of violence and vomit, they are ready to fight anyone. Move forward a few weeks and they are terrified, trapped in a snipers' alley in the backstreets of Basra.

Back home their girls are waiting... and changing. So is the brutal reality of their war. When Ben is killed and declared a hero, Jamie finds himself facing a charge of torturing insurgents.

With a great set used for the urban battlefields of both Basra and Britain on a Friday night, this play holds a magnifying glass to the ignorance, racism and double standards that are endemic when young soldiers are forced to fight for causes they don’t really understand.

•Days of Significance plays Lighthouse until Saturday Nov 14.