Let There Be Love

Published Monday 28 January 2008 at 11:35 by Jeremy Austin

Kwame Kwei-Armah is emerging as the pre-eminent writer of his generation - theatre is only about the human experience and Kwei-Armah understands this from the heart.

More than that, he understands that it is through subtlety that ideas are discussed most effectively. Of course there is the subtext in this play, comparing the experiences of the latest wave of immigrants to Britain, the Eastern Europeans, to those of a previous one, the Caribbeans.

But these parallels are drawn up in passing so that it informs the play’s undercurrent without becoming an interfering polemic. The same can be said of central character Alfred’s inherent racism, which he allows to simmer within like some Grenadian Victor Meldrew.

It is the relationships that drive this play, relationships that every single member of the audience can understand - the elderly man facing death with so many loose ends left untied, the pain that pulses through a shattered family like poisoned veins, and whether it is better to suffer an ignoble death ordained by nature or to have a little more of a say in the matter.

Joseph Marcell, as Alfred, ignites his already well-fuelled character with a passion and understanding. His prosaic language trips naturally off the tongue - something that is insanely difficult for a writer, director or actor to make work - and he pulsates with an empathy that he communicates to the audience.

As does Sharon Duncan-Brewster with wasteful daughter Gemma. Kwei-Armah and Duncan-Brewster have a complete understanding of the character, creating a bolshy 30-going-on-17 woman without descending into cliché.

Lydia Leonard as the Polish home help Maria works well with a character that is, possibly deliberately ironically, something of a racial stereotype. But there is enough there to flesh the character out.

Mention must also be made of Linbury Prize Winner Helen Goddard’s beautifully observed set. A deserved winner.