Sam is American, young and black. He has been convicted of murder and is awaiting execution on death row while the US judicial and political system plays Russian roulette with his life. Sam is definitely no saint, and if he had a pen pal he would like her to be "a hot black chick who'd write descriptions of what she'd do to me". Instead he gets Barbara, who is white, middle class, middle-aged, diffident, lives in Hackney and whose great love is her little English garden. But Barbara doesn't just write to Sam, she comes to visit him. For five hours, two people from different worlds are eyeball to eyeball in a tiny claustrophobic cell amidst the stench of imminent death, sweat and fear.
Inspired by the experiences of a family member who has corresponded with a prisoner on death row for many years, and last year went to the US to meet him, Sarah Clifford's two-hander is a heartfelt piece of writing that is given a major fillip by Lucy Pitman-Wallace's stylish and taut production and such cracking performances from David Fishley and Amelda brown that it is almost unbearable to sit with them for 90 minutes.
Clifford's play is passionate in its attempts to question the use of the death penalty in the US, and links the history of black Americans to the fact that one in three of those executed since 1977 have been black. But too often the exchanges between Sam and Barbara feel like illustrations of these points rather than real conversations, and in trying to flesh out the characters beyond the prison bars Clifford overstretches herself.
The flashbacks and memory sequences - particularly Barbara's relationship with her daughter - are theatrical blind alleys that complicate what could be a short, punchy play. "Why are you still here?" Sam keeps asking Barbara. It is a question that the audience may want to ask too, and in the end the predictable answer is that it is not to save Sam but to save herself.
· Until September 27, then touring. Box office: 01904 623568.
