After discovering his neighbours' rotting corpses, writer Dylan (Damian O'Hare) is in a hurry to escape London and leave the smell of death and guilt far behind. So with his ex-lover Nicola (Catherine Cusack), a translator, in tow, he heads for central Asia to research a book on Omar Khayyam. What nobody seems to have told him is that "the war on terror" is in full spate, and, in the post-9/11 world, the aromas of the spice and silk routes have been replaced by the stench of decay. As Nicola tartly informs him: "If you'd wanted the romanticised east, you should have gone to Brighton Pavilion. It would have been cheaper."
Tom Morton-Smith's first play is nothing if not ambitious. If he doesn't quite succeed in tying it all together, you have to admire his sheer bravado for even trying. This is unformed work, but the writing has energy and breadth, and Morton-Smith juggles ideas and emotions as he places political and personal narratives side by side, and shows how history and the present rub shoulders in the dust. The plot eventually collapses in a little heap, but you forgive it because it is very watchable.
Paul Robinson's ambitious production is bursting at the seams, but it serves the play well, and elicits classy performances from the eight-strong cast.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 020-7978 7040.
