Cycle of unfair trade

The times being as they are, I rather expected Trade to try and influence my choice of tea bag. But there's no hint of trendy worthiness in this deftly arranged, 40-minute chamber piece from Debbie Tucker Green, which deals with the subtext of when two worlds collide and transact.

Three women stand on a Caribbean beach - a white sand pit traversing the Soho space. The Novice and The Regular are British holidaymakers. The Local is a beach trader. They have all been involved with the same local chancer, and are embroiled in a strange quarrel as to who has come out of it best.

The dialogue is like bartering. Quick and full of interruptions, it's musical in a persistent, percussive way. The shifting dynamic of the argument, too, is like a trading game, with any two players co-operating at a time to the detriment of the other.

The piece's circular structure - the beginning returning as the piece ends - hints at the never-ending cycle these women are caught in. It's a brilliant marriage of form and content.

While the Brits talk of romance and women's lib, The Local analyses their liaisons in terms of simple exchange - who paid, and who got the benefit? For this play is about the illusions of haves who lie down with have-nots. The Brits' crosscultural experiences are exposed as torrid commercial ventures in which they have subconsciously connived.

Yet Green's perspective is as much feminist as antiglobalist, highlighting the devastation left behind by the entrepreneur lothario. Tanya Moodie is particularly moving as the shrivelling violet he cultivated for her cash.

The women are left arguing who got the fairest deal, when fairness was never the point of the game. Intelligent, engrossing and - because critics can do circular structure, too - just my cup of tea.

Until 25 March (0870 429 6883).

Trade