This short, early David Mamet play, dating from 1974, is about the screwed-up world of American sexuality. And, while it may not have the symphonic richness of later work like American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross, it shows a young writer flexing his muscles and confirming Voltaire's point that words were invented to hide feelings.
In 30 revue-like scenes, Mamet traces the rise and fall of a brief relationship between Danny, an assistant office manager, and Deborah, a commercial illustrator.
They hit it off in the sack but are emotionally helpless outside it. But the real problem is that each is in thrall to a vampirical friend.
Danny's spiritual mentor is the bilious Bernie who hides his fear of women under a stream of misogynist banter. Meanwhile Deborah, who admits to "lesbianic tendencies", is under the possessive spell of a kindergarten teacher, Joan, who claims men are all after only one thing, cryptically adding that it's never the same thing.
The scenes between the two women are much sketchier than those between the male buddies; which seems to bear out Mamet's point about masculine ignorance of the opposite sex.
But the Danny-Bernie encounters are terrific, pinning down macho bluster and fantasy and the precariously thin line between mateship and latent homosexuality. Through the figure of Bernie, Mamet also captures the peculiar, pointless anger that pervades American life.
The four actors are perfectly matched in Lindsay Posner's production. Matthew Perry and Kelly Reilly as the attractive lovers move convincingly from mutual sexual curiosity to Strindbergian loathing.
But it is their friends who are the real oddballs. Hank Azaria's hilariously horrible Bernie exists in a state of permanent incandescence, while Minnie Driver's quietly dominating Joan extends her control-freakery from the schoolroom to the living-room.
Jeremy Herbert's sets make you wonder how the country's most beguiling city can produce so much sexual madness. Mamet's play has sufficient metaphorical power to suggest that America's ritualistic aggression may begin in the disorderly politics of the bedroom.
· Until August 2. Box office: 020-7369 1731.
