April De Angelis's new 80-minute play tackles the big issue of corporate responsibility. It interweaves private and public worlds. It has strong metaphorical resonance. Yet, although it fulfils many of the definitions of a good play, it has one obvious fault: De Angelis manipulates her characters to reinforce her argument.
At first it seems as if we are in for lethal anti-capitalist satire. Frank, a nerdy graduate anthropologist, is being interviewed for a key job in Russia by two formidable company-women. And our sympathies flood towards the hapless Frank as he is alternately soothed by the business-driven Dr Gray and gored by the sardonic Dr Pitt suffering from post-traumatic shock syndrome. But gradually it emerges that the two women, former lovers, are themselves enacting private battles under the mask of company loyalty.
Along the way De Angelis makes any number of excellent points: that anthropology is now viewed as a marketing tool, that messy personal emotions conflict with the corporate ethos and, above all, that the environment is at the mercy of the profit motive. But it is possible to agree with all De Angelis says while questioning her tactics. In particular the pivotal figure of Dr Pitt, played with shape-shifting acuity by Sylvestra Le Touzel, has to go through lightning reversals: savage inquisitor, rejected lover, company victim and even shamanic symbol.
De Angelis might argue that this is her point: that company life deprives people of coherent identity. But the inevitable compression of a short play raises questions of plausibility: you wonder whether the two women would expose their love life in a recorded job interview. And the transformation of Frank from eccentric misfit into organisation man, ready to trample on a sacred arte fact, is dictated by the argument rather than dramatic logic.
The play is highly watchable. Phyllida Lloyd's production is sharp as a scalpel in exposing capitalist mores. Tom Brooke is also wonder fully funny as the nervy Frank and Helen Schlesinger neatly reveals the insecurities under Dr Gray's expensively-accoutred exterior.
· Until March 12. Box office: 020-7565 5000.
