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).
The Living Unknown Soldier
Arcola Theatre
Arcola Street, E8 2DJ
