Set in a Sydney suburb in 1959, Meredith Oakes's new play is subtle, elliptical and intriguing. Even if it has odd echoes of Peter Nichols's Chez Nous, it fulfils a basic rule of drama by linking private and public worlds.
Oakes's focus is on a pair of lapsed communists. Bill, who works for a giant American company that makes rockets, has transferred his faith in Marxism to science. His wife, Helen, still refusing to accept evidence of Soviet gulags, pins her future hopes on China. But their idealism is shattered when their 15-year-old daughter, Jasmine, is impregnated by a neighbouring atomic scientist.
I feel that Oakes, in order to make a point, exaggerates the amorality of the scientist who argues that "responsibility isn't a concept, it's a feeling". But what she does capture is the gullibility of people like Bill and Helen who, having abandoned the party, crave some alternative belief system. Within 90 minutes, Oakes also conveys the atmosphere of 1950s subtopian Sydney, a place where intellectuals drag their neighbours off to see La Terra Trema in the scout hut and where people vote for the Menzies coalition government out of fear of the unknown.
Martin Turner and Penny Downie as Bill and Helen show how a fractious marriage is sustained by a shared, head-in-the-clouds optimism, and Samantha Losey neatly conveys the emotional bewilderment of the jeopardised Jasmine. For the second time this year - the first was in Henry VIII at Stratford - a real baby made a sensational climactic appearance. I'm only sorry to hear that it will be replaced by a doll for the rest of the run.
· Until November 25. Box office: 020-7565 5050.
