The Stage
Duska Radosavljevic
2 September 2004

What is it about young theatre companies and the Balkan war? Unlimited Theatre built their Fringe career on the subject matter in the 1990s. Now almost ten years after the war's end, nabokov theatre company drums up the ghosts of recent history too.

The twist here is that the play focuses on a Serbian in Britain - Nikolina, a former war rape victim serving drinks in some dingy bar. The problem arises when unwittingly she gets entangled into a love triangle between three young professionals, whereby Dale, who's been having an affair with his best mate's lawyer girlfriend, falls in love with Nikolina.

Van Badham's play is dramaturgically faultless, featuring skilful stark flashbacks into Krajina's warscape and flash-forwards into flash Sheffield apartments. Director James Grieve deals with this structure through neat yet eloquent scene changes on takis' noticeably effective set, and accompanied by Lee Wilson's authentic soundtrack.

The piece is high on production values and Badham's accomplished script leads us to believe that revenge and brutality are a universal phenomenon which will have Nikolina raped wherever male pride is at stake.