Denny (Doug Allen) is a plumber who wanted to be a country singer, and even had an offer to join a band. But he didn't go; now he does a job he loathes and takes youngsters from the dead-end south London estate where he lives and works under his wing.
His latest recruit is Elvis, a teenager whose father is absent and whose mother has remarried; now she doesn't want him. Against the odds, and on an exclusive diet of Pot Noodle and Twix, Elvis is struggling - with Denny's help - to make a future for himself. But those plans are derailed when his sad-eyed 14-year-old friend Ally, desperate to escape his abusive father and join his mum in Majorca, persuades Elvis to take part in a money-making scheme that goes horribly wrong.
Lin Coghlan's play is about lost dreams and squandered futures; it is about kids with no second chances and no safety nets. Kids who have been let down all along the line - by their parents, by the justice system, by social workers and by us. It is a play of huge compassion, with some lovely observant and comic touches that are exploited to the full by Toby Alexander as the goofy Elvis and Josef Altin as the chirpy, bruised Ally.
However, until well into the second half, the play lacks shape and urgency. It is too tentative. There could almost be some kind of self-censorship going on - as if Coghlan was suppressing her anger and serving up something that wasn't going to offend the audience. The play lacks grit, and in Denny and Cooper (Paul Moriarty) - a creepy small-time businessman with big plans who runs a failing karaoke bar - it also lacks fully fledged characters. This is a play that gives a voice to those whose lives are constantly ignored and devalued; it would be so much more effective if it did so more loudly and insistently.
· Until June 18. Box office: 020-7610 4224.
