The divide between this review and others, reveals very different experiences of this play, including my own. Many other reviews have either recommended or given it up to four and a half stars. The story is a parable analogous to the horror of the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the helplessness of children when faced with an adult war. Adventurous Samura decides to leave her safe world where all wishes come true, to go to a forbidden place, that has no wishes; this is a war-torn land that is built of ash, where the children are struggling to survive. Their hearts are outside their bodies, symbolic of their emotional vulnerability, but because Samura’s is inside her chest they initially think that she has no heart and therefore, like the adults, is dangerous. She becomes friends with Ike and they journey together. Ike is trying to take them to a place of safety, away from the adult armies; there is only one protected place, a city the children have built of paper, symbolic of its fragility. The story continues in this way, a parable with powerful underlying principles, which with the character scenes demonstrate how war affects children emotionally. That many people cry is an indication that the narrative is working.