Arlene Hutton's American second world war love story was a hit at the Edinburgh fringe four years ago, and I can quite see why it might have thrived in an environment where daily life is a series of small theatrical snacks rather than big blow-outs. Without the umbrella protection of a festival, however, it looks a little on the thin side. It has oodles of quiet charm and it provides an affectionate portrait of two young people falling in love, but charm and affection don't add up to a really satisfying whole.
May and Raleigh meet on a long train journey from California to Chicago, when they discover that they come from adjacent small towns in rural Kentucky - although they turn out to be very different. She has just broken up with her boyfriend, a fighter pilot, and has plans to become a missionary, while he is disappointed at being rejected from the Air Force because of epilepsy, and dreams of being a writer. They are inclined to rub each other up the wrong way, yet are clearly attracted to each other. The subsequent 70 minutes charts three years in this on-off romance with gentle humour.
It is all perfectly pleasant, and very attractively performed by Alex Moggridge and Catherine McCarthy with the help of a little live bluegrass music, but the piece feels more like the opening of one of those extended family saga novels than a fully fledged drama. Even allowing for the period naivety, there is something that stretches your credulity about a woman who is supposed to be a schoolteacher but who thinks epilepsy is leprosy. A show best left to those who want to wallow in nostalgia for a gentler world and a quieter kind of theatre.
· Until November 8. Box office: 020-7794 0022. Then touring.
