It was a sadness to see the Southwark Playhouse half-empty for Simon Reade’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY. Hamilton wrote the books on which GASLIGHT, ROPE and HANOVER SQUARE are based. This work is set in 1929, in the aftermath of the General Strike and the Crash and follows six people who meet in a pub. It’s an empty set with a few pieces of furniture that get moved around and it’s the story of sexual obsession and manipulation. The play begins with a wonderful film noir image of a young man on a train, his faces grilled over by shadows, who ends up working in a pub. The young lass who works there and has dreams of working as a nanny for a family in India has a crush on him; he however falls in love with a young prostitute who was manipulated into the life by her best friend and a cruel married adventurer who runs over a cyclist. On the surface a bit cliché-ish, it’s certainly very middle-brow but also very good: one really gets a sense of a the social structures of the time, of the reasons for the limited options the characters have, for why they feel and act as they do. The actors are really superbly relaxed, evoking palpable heat and unfulfilled desire in a very intimate setting. It flows beautifully as well, scene merging into scene with a change of a stocking or a chair, all marvellously directed by Matthew Llife. A choreographed flow of feeling in a period setting. Yanexi Enriquez and Jordan Scowen stand out even amidst this wonderful cast. It deserves a bigger audience than it’s getting:

José Arroyo