The Jungle, Young Vic, London, theatre review: 'Wonderfully humane and illuminating'

Welcome to the Jungle. Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson were the young Oxford graduates who built a theatre in this unofficial refugee and migrant camp in Calais. They called it the Good Chance – the term refugees use when feeling that the odds are favourable for them to make it across the Channel – and it became a symbol of hope. Now the pair make their playwriting debut with this remarkable work that pulls you into the life of the camp, charting its story from inception to final eviction. It manages to be sharp and undeceived about what happens when refugees from a wide variety of backgrounds meet well-meaning volunteers from the UK. But it's also an exceptionally moving celebration of how the people set aside their differences, creating a world that, albeit cold, muddy and scary, was a tribute to tremendous resourcefulness and resilience.

The superlative staging by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin – a co-production between the Young Vic, the National and Good Chance Theatre – invites you to take a seat in a space that has been transformed into the camp's thriving Afghan restaurant which served traditional food. It received a laudatory Sunday Times review from AA Gill (who extolled a particular dish “that defied the surroundings and at the same time elevated them...”) and a five-star write-up on TripAdvisor. Miriam Buether's excellent immersive set is a deliberately makeshift affair of chip wood and tarpaulin. The tables become a network of raised walkways on which the actors perform.

The 18-strong company, brilliantly cast, let you hear a rich diversity of voices. Among them, there's Salar (Ben Turner), the diehard Afghan who built the restaurant (on behalf of which there was a peaceful protest against the bulldozers when it was the only structure in the camp that had not been moved to the “safe” zone). Our sad, gracious guide for the evening is Safi (Ammar Haj Ahmad), fleeing the nightmare of Aleppo, and noting in a coda that he spoke more English in the thronging camp each day than he does now in Leicester where he awaits a decision about asylum. Okot, a 17-year -ld boy from Darfur, had to go through several kinds of hell to get to Calais to get here; his harrowing story is embodied with an astonishing intensity of pain by John Pfumojena.

An assortment of do-gooding Brits descend, eager to organise the troops. Michael Gould's Derek, with his clip-board and earnest chivvying manner, might seem straight out of Ayckbourn, but he has his depths. In his cups one night, he suggests that the paradox at the heart of the Jungle is that the refugees are running in one direction and the volunteers are running in another, But they are all running towards the same thing. “We're building an image of Britain that doesn't exist! Certainly not in Britain. It exists in our dreams only.” He thinks, though, that with time it could exist in this spot. Whereupon a refugee drily replies that it is never mad to believe you can create a fair society: “But remember, Derek, no one wants to stay here. We all want to get to UK, Let's get you to bed.”

The production invites the gentle laughter of rueful recognition at the volunteers and we come to respect their dedication and stamina. Alex Lawther brings some delicate touches to the potential caricature of Sam, the Eton posh-boy turned town planner. He cultivates a French official for mutual favours and is told that his city-building in the camp, with its designs on permanence, is inflicting the cruelty of false hope. And Rachel Redford's excellent gap-year Beth fumes at the empty virtue-signalling of the government, vociferous that people have human rights “until they are standing at our door, screaming for help”. She becomes determined to smuggle Okot into Britain.

The production is beautifully orchestrated, deftly weaving individual storylines into the general hubbub of argument and song. It has too much humour to fall into the trap of preachiness. The play performs the vital role of raising awareness, swarming with details that bring home the felt experiences of refugees and making you ashamed that you ever thought of them as a generalised problem. The show breathes with the generosity of spirit that it champions. An admirable joint endeavour – wonderfully humane and illuminating.

To 9 January; 070 7922 2922 boxoffice@youngvic.org