After a pugnacious trio of plays called Car, Raw and Kid, Coventry-based Chris O'Connell has now gone for the big one: the two-word title. But, while his new play laudably tackles urban regeneration, I feel that he is over-ambitious in trying to cram the whole experience of city life into a 90-minute work with six characters.
Everything in O'Connell's elliptical narrative revolves around Roy West, a shop steward turned council leader who has plans to redevelop his native city. West's grandiose schemes are fiercely opposed by a conservationist teacher. And his life is further complicated by the return of a vengeful ex-mistress and an old shopfloor colleague as well as by the sexual treachery of his politically ambitious PA. The only character who escapes West's orbit is a photographer determined to record every facet of his changing city.
O'Connell is certainly onto something. Although brought up near Coventry, I found myself circling round its ring road in a desperate attempt to find the right exit. And we have all seen the heart ripped out of many of Britain's finest cities in the name of urban development. But O'Connell weakens his argument by turning West into a tinpot tyrant who abused his former mistress. And, while it's fine to offer a poetic evocation of city life, O'Connell's play lacks the panoramic quality of a work like Owen McCafferty's Scenes from the Big Picture.
Despite its flaws, I still found myself gripped by O'Connell's play: not least because it acknowledges progress while passionately claiming cities exist for their inhabitants. Matthew Lloyd's production also neatly counterpoints wrecked lives with hi-tech surrounds and there are strong performances from Terence Wilton as the testy politician, John Marquez as his vehement opponent and Marty Cruickshank as his damaged ex-mistress. With the Belgrade itself about to undergo a £10m redevelopment as part of Coventry's civic regeneration, O'Connell's play certainly has an abrasive timeliness.
· Until November 13. Box office: 024-7655 3055.
