The Viewing Room - TNT

If he weren't so priggishly obnoxious, you'd probably feel sorry for Brian. After all, how would you like to share your compact open plan apartment with a prisoner who can peer through the glazed bathroom door as your wife undresses? That's the uncomfortable scenario in Daniel Joshua Rubin's topical play, set some time in the future, which addresses the issues of prison overcrowding and the responsibility of the individual for those whom society or state has locked away. Caged like a bird, but as malign as an unpredictable pet dog gone bad, convicted criminal Kyle (Leonard Roberts from "Heroes" making a muscular West End debut) is part of an every-home- should-have-one rehabilitation program in which members of the public enlist as house prison officers. But, as they attempt to set their allocated "houseguest" back on the road to a productive freedom, Brian and his restless wife (Samantha Wright) find out that their duties extend uncomfortably far beyond the installation of surveillance equipment and the provision of regular meals. Rubin deviates too often and too repetitiously from the main thrust of his thesis (and raises unintentional giggles when he dilutes his argument by equating motherhood with incarceration) Somewhere in there, a fine play is waiting to get out but, like Kyle, it needs to be knocked into shape before it's completely ready for release.
Arts Theatre, Great Newport St, WC2 (0844-847 1608) Until March 29. £32.50- £15