Tommy seems to like being Mr Nobody, even though he lives his life on the streets and finds his food in dustbins. He has been Mr Nobody since he was found on the streets a year ago, having been seriously assaulted. Afterwards, he told nice Jean from the social services that he had amnesia and couldn't remember a thing about who he was and where he came from. Jean worries about Tommy, but he claims that he has "been like this as long as I remember" and is doing fine. "Not from where I'm sitting," says Jean. "Then sit somewhere else," retorts Tommy.
Now, a year later, Jean has a surprise for Tommy: Claire, whose husband walked out of her life five years before without even leaving a note. Claire says Tommy is her long-lost husband, Graham, and wants to take him home. She has already organised the welcome party. It is clear that Tommy doesn't want to attend. Soon it becomes apparent that somebody is being economical with the truth, or maybe everyone is rewriting the past to suit their present. After all, even Jean has walked out of her marriage and her job, hoping to wipe the slate clean and begin again. Isn't beginning again something many of us secretly long to do?
Philip Ralph's first produced play is a very enjoyable game of cat and mouse between Niall Buggy's wily, watchful Tommy and Maggie McCarthy as Claire, an ample woman who is much smarter than she looks. The psycho logical game-playing is refereed by Patricia Kerrigan as Jean, whose motives for engineering this reunion bear scrutiny. In Jonathan Lloyd's excellent production, all three set about the script like starving hordes thrilled to have discovered something really meaty to chew on. It is perhaps no surprise that Ralph used to be an actor.
If you wanted to pick a bone, you could say that perhaps the play is a little too solid, a little too carefully plotted, rather overeager to tie up the loose ends. Still, at this stage in his career, it may be better for Ralph to show more care than flair. Next time, perhaps, he will be able to spread his wings and fly higher and further. Although not, I hope, disappear.
·Until June 28. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
