In the interview room of a police station, DS Caroline Paterson is attempting to break a resolutely mute suspect whom she knows has been involved in racketeering, intimidation and probably worse. It is a tough case for her, made tougher by the fact that she is a fast-track career policewoman with a promotion coming up, and has an interview partner in old-timer Bill, who has been on the Force for 30 years, who is proving more of a hindrance than a help. Quite how much of a hindrance only becomes apparent just before the interval.
Gary Mitchell's play could merely be a gritty episode of Prime Suspect and there are times when his televisual thriller seems to be little more than a sparkily written slice from one of those police dramas where a female detective encounters the misogyny of canteen culture. But context is all in Mitchell's play. Paterson is not in any old police force but the RUC, and the suspect in the interview room is Stanley Brown, a member of the UDA.
Mitchell has become the great chronicler of the protestant experience in Northern Ireland, and here, using a taut thriller format, he shows how the RUC, a Protestant force for a Protestant community, finds itself in a world of change where its role and even its name is under threat. For many in this police station it used to be obvious who the enemy was - the IRA. But now the enemy is closer to home and officers such as Caroline Paterson are a symbol of the attempt to push the RUC into a world where peace stands a chance.
The play, though never less than gripping, is always drama rather than theatre. But the friction of the here and now is so palpable that Mitchell succeeds in making the play seem urgent, compulsive and even essential. It makes you realise the extent of David Trimble's difficulties and why in the face of such entrenched tribal loyalties the peace process is such a mirage.
You leave the theatre feeling profoundly depressed. The seams of the plot show too much for it to be credible and I'd defy any actress, even if she was Sarah Bernhardt and Juliet Stevenson rolled into one, to be able to pull off the role of Caroline Paterson (played by Laine Megaw), who is not above using her gender and her sex appeal for her own ends.
Robert Delamere's production cleverly contains the explosive nature of the revelations so their impact is all the more devastating. Simon Wolfe as Caroline's police partner, and Stuart Graham as the misogynist who knows that his day will come, are outstanding.
Until November 25. Box office: 020-7565 5000.
