Night, A Wall, Two Men

Etcetera Theatre , London NW1

3 Stars

This two-hander is the first London production of work by Australian playwright Daniel Keene.

Directed by Liz Newberrry for Fifth Province Productions, it tracks the sporadic encounters of two nameless male vagrants over an undefined period of time who meet up at an anonymous wall.

The two have a strained, disconnected and bickering relationship which lacks focus and direction. They are marginalised individuals living lives, or rather half-lives, on the fringes of an indeterminate society.

The programme notes describe the production as "bleakly funny" yet it is anything but a barrel of laughs. A challenge for both performers and audience, in a strange and uncomfortable way it's disturbingly compelling and invites latter retrospection.

At the heart of the piece is a fundamental and palpable absence - of identity, of narrative, of hope and connection.

Keene's work has been likened to Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot but at least Estragon and Vladimir had names to respond to and the vain expectation of Godot.

In this play there is only the bleak here and occasional now and a vague glimpse of lives previously lived which in the present are consigned to drifting stasis.

Donal Cox and John Eastman as the two proponents bring muchneeded definition to their respective performances.

Cox, as the older Irishman, throws some interesting shapes as he shambles through the action, evoking recollections of an earlier and lost swagger. There are particular moments of whimsy and poignancy as he recalls the recipe for his father's sailor's stew and later, in meticulous detail, describes the processes in making a boot by hand.

Eastman, with less engaging lines, succeeds in conveying with a hopeless defiance a man cast adrift from a previous life. Now he snatches at scraps of comfort but ultimately without purpose or opportunity.

Not an easy piece but if you're up for 60 minutes of challenging theatre this fits the bill.

Runs until November 24. Box office: (020) 7482-4857

Dennis Poole