Metro  
Claire Allfree

13 August 2003

Rebekah and her mother Maggie are cowering on a London street. A bomb has just gone off. Rebekah has superficial injuries, 17 others are dead.

A new play from the writer behind last year's fringe hit Kitchen, Camarilla is an admirable but flawed attempt to debate rights and responsibilities within a contemporary political climate.

So die-hard left wing commentator Maggie, a prominent media figure, believes passionately in ideological freedom and civil liberties. Husband John is a placid member of the Labour Party.

Playwright Van Badham has a coherent grasp of political discourse, but she almost entirely fails to transform it into drama.

Too much ludicrous plot is crammed into a very small space; characters - particularly Rebekah (Caroline O'Kerr, pictured) - behave in order to serve Badham's preposterous narrative rather than themselves; the collapse into melodrama merely brings the play's arguments and ideas down with it.

It's good to see current issues confronted so boldly on stage, but a half-decent play wouldn't go amiss too.