A kitchen sink weepy

Written in 1947, Ena Lamont Stewart's Men Should Weep has not been seen in London for decades. In the Oxford Stage Company's touring revival, it's easy to see why. These are melodramatic, dated, kitchen sink dispatches from Depression-era Glasgow, almost unremitting in their bleakness, yet lacking the passion of, say, John Osborne.

Maggie Morrison struggles to cope with her often unemployed, imperfect husband and a family of seven children. Bertie has TB, Jenny wants to leave home and Alec's found himself a wife who moans when he's not stealing enough. Pauline Turner's Maggie tries hard to hold everything together, making her inevitable snap seem all the more powerful.

By contrast, her husband John's constant anger too readily escapes - although Paul Hamilton's performance implies that for these people violence is never out of the question.

'There's no love in this part of town,' we're told, because the squalid living conditions have robbed these people of their basic humanity. Thankfully, director Charlotte Gwinner encourages little sentimentality, with Jennifer Piercey's Granny a dour delight.

Michael Taylor's design - a busy house open to skies strung with washing - is genuinely evocative of the time. But it's an age too unlike our own, making this simply an important period piece.

Until Sat, Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, E8, 7.45pm, Sat mat 2.30pm, £10 to £18, £8 to £16 concs. Tel: 020 8985 2424. www.hackneyempire.co.uk Rail: Hackney Central

Men Should Weep