THE Burma Play brought the country's nightmare up to date with a popular entertainer (David Bowen) struggling to restore his damaged memory and his colleague (Cilla Baynes) pushing him to face the past by replaying their repertoire of gags and sketches.

The show was introduced with trailers showing the work of Amnesty International and the The Cooperative, which supported the event. Proceeds from the evening went to the Burma Campaign UK and Taunton Amnesty International.

The actors flitted from British occupiers, to American journalists, and from the oppressor to the oppressed. Bowen and Baynes, from the Northern International Theatre, gave empathetic and emotive performances, with the odd glimpse of humour.

They showed the plight of the Burmese from British invasion, to the rule of independence leader Aung San and his assassination in 1947, to the current dictatorship and house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San. The actors portrayed the suffering of a people through sharp dialogue and dramatics, in a sensitive yet shocking piece of theatre.

Htay Kywe, Mie Mie and Zaw Htet Ko Ko are the Taunton Amnesty group's adopted Prisoners of Conscience in Burma. In March 1988, a group of Burmese students built a peaceful pro democracy movement that spread across the country. But the government reacted violently, killing and imprisoning many.

Seventeen years later, inspired by the ideals of the protests, the '88 Generation Students group was formed. In 2007 when the group took part in mass anti-government protests, the trio were arrested and sentenced to between 11 and 65 years imprisonment. Amnesty is calling for people to write to ministers on the activists' behalf. For more information, visit www.amnesty.org.uk/taunton