At this halfway point in the theatrical year, it's useful to squint briefly forward to the awards ceremonies to come and start to wonder what might be in contention.
If this outstanding debut from Morgan Lloyd Malcolm doesn't feature I'll be staggered, as it packs - and elegantly - into 75 minutes what most dramas could only dream of fitting into double the time.
The play, about a young lesbian soldier returning home after a tour in Afghanistan, is the product of Hampstead Theatre's innovative Downstairs space, which allows work to develop away from critical and commercial pressures. It's a feather in the cap of this slowly rejuvenating venue, for sure, and thank goodness for its transfer.
Sensitively yet punchily directed by Maria Aberg, herself a name to watch, and superbly acted by a cast of four, it's a terrific addition to the West End.
Our role in overseas wars, women in the armed forces, sexual ambiguity, broken families, social isolation: these are just some of the topics covered by Lloyd Malcolm, previously best known as a comedy writer but with such assurance that nothing seems shoehorned in. Deb (Joanna Horton, surely an awards contender herself) is back at her Chippenham family home, where Dad Jim (Ian Bailey) has taken up with an internet pornography business and also with Deb's friend Jo (Kirsty Bushell).
Home truths inevitably start to fly around the kitchen table, which in Naomi Dawson's slick design splits the stage with a bunk bed in the mixed barracks that Deb shared with Sarko (Calum Callaghan) in Afghanistan. Flashbacks show Deb trying valiantly to fit into the Army's male sexual culture; Horton's slight frame, convincingly muscled, assumes a subtle macho swagger. The pressure of appearing so tough all the time is too much, though, and when this shifting mood piece sees Deb crack, Horton resembles a vulnerable little girl. Like all of us, Deb just wants to feel that she belongs somewhere.
Until July 9 (0870 060 6632, ambassadortickets.com)
Belongings
Trafalgar Studios
Whitehall, SW1A 2DY
