The Promise: Brendan Patricks, Sam Corry and Michelle Terry star
Rarely has a play been so suited to performance in a studio space as Alexei Arbuzov's The Promise.
Set over 18 years in one small Leningrad apartment - or "housing allocation" in Communist speak - this Russian take on the classic tale of a love triangle makes a claustrophobic two hours of theatre.
But in Zoe Waterman's brave new production for New Wimbledon Studio, the audience feel that claustrophobia as much as the three characters caught up in each other's lives and hearts - Lika, Marat and Leonidik.
In the first instance, this is due to a superb set by Bronia Housman, who has made of this room an everywhere. Real life, such as it is, goes on outside the apartment door, although the historical context looms large and clear on the back wall, daubed in Communist propaganda and slogans.
Arbuzov's play has always appealed to young companies. Indeed, this is the second of four London productions in as many months.
But actors taking on this trio of roles must possess the ability to age - both physically and emotionally - and Waterman has got the most out of her talented cast.
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As Lika, Michelle Terry grows from a headstrong but emotionally naive young girl into a woman, confident in her choice of career but not so much in love.
Brendan Patricks as Leonidik is equally convinving, painting a portrait of a man who can be open with his feelings, but like in the poetry he publishes, only up to a point.
Sam Corry has a harder job with Marat. Believable as an 18 year old with his adolescent refrain of "I could tell you - but I won't", he is hampered later on by some mumbled lines and, unlike Leon and Lika, his face does not seem to have aged enought for the final act.
All three characters have different coping mechanisms to distance themselves from the pain of life outside - Lika nurses, Marat lies and Leonidik refers to himself in the third person whenever things get too much.
But they cannot, in the end, avoid what is going on inside. "We are the grown-ups who are still reading children's books," says Lika. And at some point these three indidivudals must choose which they want to be and who they want to be with.
For more details visit theambassadors.com/newwimbledon/
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