Nocturnal *** TNT
Tuesday 05 May 2009 13:48 GMT
The precarious existence of illegal immigrants comes under scrutiny in Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga’s uncomfortable account of one man’s controlling obsession with the man who lives in the apartment below.
Developed from a shorter piece ironically entitled The Good Neighbour, it shows the increasing power that the never named Short Man upstairs comes to exert over the equally anonymous, but far better educated, Tall Man downstairs. Short Man has calculated that his fellow resident’s nocturnal job and small flat signify someone without papers, and confronts him in the local café. His blackmailing is fairly low key – all he seems to want is a friendship to supplement the companionship he fails to get from his insomniac wife (Short Woman). But it’s coercion, all the same, and Tall Woman, too, feels threatened by the growing intrusion into her husband’s life.
Matthew Walker and Hannah Clark’s boxed-in design encloses the four protagonists in a stifling psychological dance, whilst using clever projected animations to take them from flat to zoo (the nocturnal house, naturally) to park bench. But, despite the creepy, night-time feel, the play itself is hardly the satire it claims to be.
Gate, Pembridge Road W11 3HQ (020 7229 0706; gatetheatre.co.uk) Tube: Notting Hill Gate. Until 16th May. £16
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