'They Came to a City' at the Southwark Playhouse

Who would have though that optimism could seem so dated?

Written in 1943, J.B. Priestley's play skirts a very fine line between a play and a polemic about the kind of society that could be created from the upheaval that large areas of the world were experiencing.

The play expresses a passionate hope that things can be made better if we don't commit ourselves to simply rebuilding what was there before. The kind of hope that led to massive societal changes in Britain even in the face of terrible austerity. And it's the kind of hope which now seems elementary and childish because that society didn't come about. That, in effect, we failed.

Straightforwardly written and clearly structured, the play in places comes across as a trifle simplistic but then a passing comment from one of the characters will jolt you with Priestley's prescience. When you're laughing at a joke at the expense of business and banking which sounds as though it could have been written for a panel show last week you have to give the author credit.

All the performances were carefully judged to give just the right amount of cliched forties character actor that the dialogue demands and then let the superb writing do the hard work. Particular congratulations to James Robinson and Charlotte Donachie who produced credible protagonists out of the roles which run the greatest risk of sounding naive.

Also worthy of note was the beautiful lighting in the Playhouse's cavernous Vault, making the always out of sight city seem welcoming in that tunnel is quite a task.

Very much of it's time but timely, 'They Came To a City' was surprising, amusing and - through no fault of it's own - slightly depressing.

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