David Hermanstein's play, developed by West Yorkshire Playhouse in association with the black theatre ensemble, Eclipse, raises hopes that here might be a new voice capable of expressing the black urban experience beyond the familiar cliches of gangster patois, guns and drug cartels.
It is slightly disappointing that most of these stereotypical elements abound, though Hermanstein does stretch the parameters to include gangster child-care arrangements. Single mum Dionne finds herself on a psychiatric ward after her boyfriend is gunned down on the doorstep, leaving her brother Remi holding the baby. His somewhat unorthodox methods for pacifying the child include lacing its formula milk with marijuana and leaving it outside the hospital in the hope that someone might take the problem off his hands.
Hermanstein has recently made the switch from television scriptwriting; he claims to prefer theatre "because you can mess about with time and structure ... it's all about mood and tone and ambiguity". Yet it is also about presenting an intelligible narrative, and rather too much of the play's 70-minute duration is swallowed up fathoming who is related to who, where the characters are supposed to be, and even whether they are appearing from beyond the grave.
Ultimately Safe's small-screen, soap-ish qualities betray Hermanstein's inexperience as a stage writer. It will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable learning experience, though it may have been safer still to leave it in the workshop.
· In rep until June 9. Box office: 0113 213 7700.
