This strange, haunting play by Mary Morris, first seen in western Australia, touches on a fascinating subject: the enforced placement of children in mental institutions in 1940s Britain. But, at a mere 70 minutes, it never has enough space to investigate its extraordinary, under-documented theme.
Admittedly, Morris focuses more on the consequences than on the causes of incarceration. Her chief interest is in Clarissa, who - having spent 50 years locked up in a Yorkshire mental home - claims she has a long-lost sister. Eventually, the sister is tracked down to Perth, Australia, and the two are fractiously reunited. Barely literate or numerate (though foul-tongued and sharp-witted), Clarissa proves an obdurate handful both for her sister and the Oz fuzz. But eventually reconciliation is achieved.
Sadly, although she cuts between the elderly sisters' reunion and their motherless childhood, Morris takes too long to ask the big question: how come a young girl was locked away for life? By implying that Clarissa uncovered some dark family secret, Morris also obscures the real scandal - that, because of a lack of places in children's homes, a number of orphaned kids were institutionalised for life.
If only Morris had told us more about what was clearly a national disgrace. However, within its domestic limits, the play has an authentic pathos. And the image I shall carry away from Lucy Skilbeck's production is of Prunella Scales as the aged Clarissa. Under a wild mane of white hair, Scales's features acquire the innocent curiosity of a young girl; and the highest tribute I can pay to her compassionate performance is that I was reminded of Deborah, in Pinter's A Kind of Alaska, waking up to a new world with a sense of bewildered wonderment.
Gillian Axtell as her guilt-ridden sister, Annie Rowe and Susan Harrison as the adolescent siblings and James Livingstone as an assortment of social workers all make skilful contributions. But, while it is impossible not to be touched by Morris's feelgood play about late-life liberation, a bit more inquisitive anger about an iniquitous social system would not come amiss.
· Until December 8. Box office: 020-7226 1916.
