Approaching Empty review: Comes into its own as an exploration of loyalty in a go-it-alone society

The fact that Ishy Din’s drama about a struggling minicab firm in Middlesbrough is set at the time of Margaret Thatcher’s death is no coincidence.

This very particular period is a cue for reflection on the type of society Mrs T inherited and the one she created, via two long-time friends who used to have jobs in the local steelworks until it closed down.

This pair, 55-year-olds of Pakistani origin, are Raf (Nicholas Khan), who owns the cab firm, and its manager Mansha (Kammy Darweish), who wants to buy it from Raf and revive its ailing fortunes. “You don’t have to be ruthless,” says good-natured Mansha who, we suspect, is about to be proven sorely wrong.

The first half, flat and static, is essentially at empty, but there’s a welcome top-up of fuel after the interval of Pooja Ghai’s production, which is a collaboration between the Kiln, Tamasha and Live Theatre, Newcastle.

It is here that Din gets stuck into an examination of whether good, old-fashioned ethics and loyalty have a time or a place anywhere in our increasingly cut-throat, go-it-alone society.

Until Feb 2 (020 7328 1000, kilntheatre.com)