The Fear of Breathing, Finborough Theatre, review I can't remember a piece of documentary theatre that has arrived with such remarkable dead-on timing as The Fear of Breathing - an insiders" view of Syria, and another coup for the plucky little Finborough in Earls Court. It may be that the Syrian uprising achieves a decisive victory, Assad falls, and this theatrical footnote gets consigned to recent history before its run has even ended. That would be quite something. But in any event, as a means of helping us understand what the people engaged in the struggle against Assad's brutal regime are going through, and what they're thinking, it can hardly be bettered. The evening is built upon the testimonies collected by two very brave, capable reporters: Telegraph correspondent Ruth Sherlock, recently named Young Journalist of the Year, and BBC journalist Paul Wood. The director Zoe Lafferty has also provided interview material and shapes the eye-witness collage with a neat feel for structure, a relish for direct address and a gift for bullet-fast pacing. We hear from around a dozen citizens: men who have joined the Free Syrian Army, female activists, even a cheery hotelier who awkwardly expresses his support for Assad. An unnamed "photographer" is presumably the Sunday Times's Paul Conroy, who was with acclaimed war-correspondent Marie Colvin when she was killed in February; an unforgettable vignette of that shocking incident is included, too. In contrast with The Prophet, a disappointing recent exploration of the Egyptian revolution at the Gate, Notting Hill - which let the playwright's fictional perspective get in the way of the front-line accounts he had been inspired by - this project primarily trusts in the words gathered to grip and inform us. Using a war-torn design that rips a gash of concrete along the back-wall, Lafferty intersperses the scenelets with video footage and at points the cast provide visceral re-enactments of street skirmishes or bouts of torture. But in general it's the simple attempt to articulate "ordinary" Syrian experience that draws us in. Two testimonies stand out - those of an embittered mother (played by Sirine Saba) whose young daughter was casually and fatally shot by Syrian security and of a repeatedly arrested student activist, Quataba (Adam Youssefbeygi), lucky to emerge with his life after vicious maltreatment. Both express greater defiance and determination as a result of their experiences. I'm not sure Assad's regime ever actually factored in the power of the human spirit. Essential viewing. Until Aug 11.