It is said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Meredydd Barker's play is about what happens when a committee attempts to commission a horse.
Very little has happened in the Welsh town of Treianto since the 12th century, when Prince Ianto the Good sacrificed himself by giving away his mount. Now the town council has a pot of money to erect a sculpture, and a furious row breaks out over who should receive the commission. The council has appointed a Dutch sculptor to bring an international profile to the region; the opposition demands to know why it cannot be done by somebody local. But for the public at large it remains a pointless row about an obscure lump of metal that will only give the local vandals something else to spray.
Barker employs a cast of 12 and a timespan of 800 years to produce a state-of-the-nation drama demonstrating the ancient Welsh capacity for shooting themselves in the foot. One artist points out that 35 medieval princes were killed by their own men: "That's what I learned today about this country. It isn't the enemy. It's your brother - the shit who wants a tenner."
There is a lot that can go wrong with plays on this scale, and it is to Barker's credit that he gets much of it right. A number of wordy and rather too similar scenes mistake sarcasm for humour, and Phillip Breen's production tends to equate shouting with intensity. But the characters are diligently drawn and the public sculpture row is an effective means of presenting the internecine warfare of Welsh politics. The trouble is that, for an outsider, the best approach to Welsh politics is usually to steer well clear.
· Until November 17. Box office: 0845 330 3565.
