INSPIRED by 30 interviews with returned servicemen, Pink Mist tells the story of three young men deployed to Afghanistan and their return home to their mothers, wives and girlfriends.

With haunting verse, dynamic staging and starkly honest performances the play comes to Birmingham Repertory Theatre from March 23 to 25.

Three schoolmates, three boys on the verge of adulthood, three lads with dreams bigger than the prospects that staying where they are can offer.

The army – a career, opportunity, adventure, skills and excitement.

Three soldiers off to Afghanistan. Three fighters doing what they have been trained to do.

Three men returning to their loved ones, wounded, scarred, dead or alive.

The physical and psychological aftershocks of war take their toll on each one of them and each of the loved ones they left behind. For Arthur, Hads and Taff, the journey home is their greatest battle.

Writer Owen Sheers said: “Pink Mist is a piece of theatre that grew through ideas of voice. It began with listening to the voices of recently wounded service personnel and their families.

“The characters of Pink Mist (with the exception of Ken) are my inventions. Many of their experiences, however, are echoes of real events experienced by those I interviewed for my research. I am incredibly grateful for the generosity with which these people, all of them still raw with aftermath, shared their thoughts and observations. I hope, in writing Pink Mist, I’ve managed to protect the authenticity of their witness, while also heightening their voices in such a way that their stories might continue to resonate long after an audience has left the theatre.”

For more information, go to birmingham-rep.co.uk.