Like A Fishbone ** TNT

Subtitled “An argument and an architectural model,” Aussie playwright Anthony Weigh’s short new play raises interesting issues and sticks to its brief, but it gets off to an unconvincing start from which it never really recovers.

On a dark, rainy evening, an unnamed Mother, obviously not a townie, turns up unannounced at the sleek offices of the architectural firm commissioned to create a memorial to the young lives tragically lost when a gunman ran riot in a rural church school.

Though she maintains that her daughter told her to come, it soon becomes apparent that it is only an internal voice which has prompted her to make the long bus journey to try to understand the nature of the proposed structure.

Blind and with a profound faith, she is the antithesis of Deborah Findlay’s well-groomed, sophisticated Architect (concerned, professional but with her mind on the imminent presentation of her design) who intends to conserve the schoolhouse – “like jam” - just as it was.

The bereaved Mother wants the building to be razed to the ground rather than remain as a monument for tourists to gape at.

The repetitious dialogue between the two rarely rings true and barely scratches the surface of the religion versus reason argument which divides them. But Lucy Osborne’s set convincingly restructures the intimate space, whilst Phoebe Waller-Bridge does what she can with the underwritten role of the Architect’s eager intern. And, finally, the closing image of the Architect singing down the phone to her own child says more about motherhood and loss than anything that has gone before.

Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD (Shepherds Bush tube) 020 8743 5050
bushtheatre.co.uk Until 10th July £20 (Saturday matinees £15)