As thousands have been tortured, jailed, maimed or killed by the Syrian regime, The Fear of Breathing is not only a new play based entirely on verbatim reports from inside Syria itself, but is also a hard-hitting evocation of a life or death fight for freedom, experienced from the inside. To uncover these personal stories from the uprising, award-winning journalists Paul Wood and Ruth Sherlock, together with theatre director Zoe Lafferty, travelled into Syria covertly, circumventing the ban on journalists and restrictions on movement for all non-Syrians. They spoke to protesters as well as citizens who love President Bashar al-Assad and are terrified of a future without him.

Featuring verbatim scenes, interviews, stories and film footage, The Fear of Breathing is a powerful and profoundly disturbing portrait of a revolution struggling to survive.