HOW do a mother and father feel when a son, or daughter, goes off to fight in Afghanistan? Some parents may be able to imagine the tumble of emotions that accompany decisions such as these, which is precisely what inspired local actors Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson in their latest production, Josh's Monsters.

This new play, which will be premiered at Swimbridge Village Hall on September 18, is deeply rooted in North Devon, its origins going back to Barnstaple museum and its development taking place over several weekends at Beaford Arts' Greenwarren House.

Bill and Gill, who are North Devon's own professional theatre company multi story, were originally working with the museum on a project to put together reflections and experiences of war from an archive of oral testimonies by local people.

"It was impossible to do more than scrape the surface within a 30 minute presentation extracted from 20 hours of recordings," said Bill. "So when we learned that Beaford Arts was pioneering a new scheme, called Breathing Space, that offers companies the chance to explore and develop projects over a period of time, we grabbed the opportunity to reflect further on the material from the archive and its dramatic possibilities."

The oral testimonies included reminiscences from different wars and conflicts, stretching back to the Second World War but it was the present conflict in Afghanistan which drew Gill and Bill.

Over three long Breathing Space weekends at Greenwarren House, they developed the idea of a family living in a rural location, with memories of the Second World War, and a son who was about to embark on a second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

From the outset they knew they could never do justice to the actual experience of being in Afghanistan, so they decided to approach the play from another angle — that of the parents.

"We faced a challenge in terms of how we, as a civilian man and woman in our fifties, might respond creatively to and represent the intense experience of young men and women in combat. So we decide not to — not directly at any rate," said Bill.

"We decided to bring our own experiences as parents, and as children of the generation that fought World War Two, into the equation."

The characters they created were parents Chrissie and Doug, Josh the soldier and his elder brother Ben.

Bill stressed that despite hearing so many first hand accounts from local military people, Josh's Monsters, is not directly based on any personal recollections.

"Our characters have their antecedents in some of the voices from the museum archives, or from other areas of our research. But that's as far as it goes. This is a fictional family. As soon as these characters began to emerge we decided not to pursue any closer contact with real military families or individuals and to pull back from quoting directly from the archive."

The play uses multimedia technology including projected images culled from the web to highlight different themes and give a presence, and voice, to the characters of Josh and Ben.

The contrast between the different landscapes was also important. Long walks in the countryside around Beaford, and their own personal appreciation of the idyllic North Devon scenery, added another angle to the thought of travelling many miles away to a hot and dangerous desert landscape.

At its heart, Josh's Monsters is a play about family and relationships and Bill said they want it to "excite as an intriguing domestic drama" with amusing family anecdotes and hidden secrets — the conflicts and family dynamics we all recognise.

As for their own ideas and thoughts about war and Afghanistan, their opinions have certainly altered through the play-writing process, but the result offers no conclusive opinions on the war's rights or wrongs.

Bill reflected: "As a wise voice from the museum archive says, the military is as full of disparate voices as the rest of society, reflecting all shades of political opinion and as full of quirks, oddities and contradictions as the rest of civil society.

"We don't offer Josh and his family as a typical military family, or as a typical North Devon family. They are a family who live in North Devon trying to understand each other and do the best by each other.

"They are a family without military connections other than service in World War Two and Josh joining up is a bolt from the blue. Chrissie supports him unreservedly. Doug can't. Whether this conflict brings them closer or tears them apart remains to be seen."

● Josh's Monsters is at Swimbridge Village Hall on Saturday, September 18 at 7.30pm.

Tickets: £7 (advance), £5 (children), £20 (family) on 01271 831009. Josh's Monsters is suitable for audiences aged 14 plus.

Tickets also available through Beaford Arts on 01805 603201 or online at www.beaford-arts.org.uk