Another gunshot; another newspaper headline. Judd Batchelor's one-woman show puts flesh on the statistics behind the mounting toll of teenage deaths from gun crime. What better place to do it than in Hackney, a place where even the home secretary is afraid to walk the streets alone after dark.
In fact, Batchelor presents a very different picture of Hackney: here, it is a place where ordinary families struggle to live decent lives and get caught up in the crossfire. As this play suggests, walking past another wilting bunch of flowers tied to railings has become as commonplace as walking past a beggar. Neither surprises us anymore. But Mrs Morris is a mother who is determined that we take notice, and she is prepared to go to extremes to do it. Her son, Gavin, was just another kid growing up in the area, but to his doting mother he was "the little boss of the world". "You did good, little man," his father tells the six-year-old Gavin when the child gets involved in his first fight. Little more than a decade later, Gavin is dead.
Batchelor hints that the seeds of violence are sown in a culture that celebrates being a big man. This topical show wears its heart on its sleeve and Batchelor seems to live this piece as much as acting it. But the clumsy construction, sketchy writing and lack of detail mean it is never as hard-hitting as it should be. I felt that I should have cared a great deal more than I actually did. But perhaps the primary purpose here is not to make great drama, but to campaign against the waste of so much potential.
· Until February 3. Box office: 020-8985 2424.
