In the summer of 1999, after four years of supposedly doing a PhD at his parents' expense, Ronnie is back from Israel with not even a suntan to his name and staring 40 in the face. But he does have designs on the room that he used to have in the flat he shared with his non-Jewish best friend, Dan.
But Ronnie doesn't seem to realise that things have moved on. Dan has been married and divorced and has a three-year-old son who often stays, and he is now having a relationship with Ronnie's sister, Cass, that is quietly turning serious. At least it is until Ronnie starts sowing seeds of doubt in both Dan and Cass's minds.
Simon Block's latest play is mostly very enjoyable, particularly in its depiction of a group of Peter Pans who have reached 35 but are still suffering adolescent growing pains. But for all the sharpness of much of the writing, the evening has such a density about it that it often feels like wading through porridge.
With Ronnie successfully creating a religion issue between Dan and Cass where none had previously existed, and his own disenchantment with Israel, the stage looks set for some kind of metaphor about the Middle East. None is forthcoming. Block has written a perceptive drama about the prickly relationships between men and women, and the choices we make, and complicated it by throwing in Israel. If you took Israel out of the play, it would not suffer, and might be all the better for it. It feels gratuitous, particularly when both Ronnie and Cass (who is supposed to be a documentary researcher) seem so astoundingly ignorant on the subject.
Curiously, as the play goes on, Ronnie fades into a minor character. But for all its flaws, this is a play that captures the uncertainties of a generation who are so concerned with getting it perfect that they are in danger of not getting it at all.
· Until March 16. Box office: 020-7722 9301.
