There’s a point in the second act of Steve Gilroy’s verbatim re-enactment of conversations with the mothers, widows and sisters of the young lads caught in the crossfire of the almost certainly illegal wars they became cannon fodder for, when the lights go up on the already pin-drop silent audience.

One of the women takes a microphone and speaks into it as if at a public meeting. This is no rabble-rousing assault from what Margaret Thatcher once dubbed the enemy within, presumably meaning the bogeymen of the intellectual left intent on revolution. Rather, the litany of hurt, frustration, confusion and disgust that pours casually from this woman’s mouth about how her son’s life was cut short and his body torn to pieces demonstrates how real politicisation largely comes by the default of first-hand tragedy.

Gilroy’s dramatic collage of sixteen Tyneside women’s’ experience initially comes on all Creature Comforts.

Their series of bite-size monologues are full of homespun Geordie wisdom, involuntary interruptions and the awkward self-consciousness of those not used to being on show in such a fashion, even if the conversation is accompanied by a cup of tea.

As they rifle through khaki-coloured tin boxes full of what the authorities would call personal effects, however, the easy banter soon gives way to a feeling of communal betrayal.

Where some verbatim theatre might trade on hysteria, this revival of Gilroy’s own production for Newcastle’s Live Theatre, is meticulously and sensitively realised by its wonderful cast of Rachel Adamson, Charlie Binns, Eleanor Clarke and Helen Embleton. In light of the recent slaughters in Afghanistan, they make the play more relevant than ever.

Star rating: *****