Making sweet piano music

Based loosely on the experiences of Cuban poet Maria Elena Cruz Varela, Nilo Cruz's play is a peek into the fiercely restricted lives of Maria Celia (Catalina Botello) and her much younger pianist sister Sophie (Eva Alexander).

The pair are under house arrest after two years in prison, thanks to Maria Celia's polite but inflexible rejection of the regime.

Sophie is 24, hungry for sex, excitement - even just a walk by the sea; Maria Celia longs for mail from her beloved husband. Into this fraught situation walks Lieutenant Portuondo (Robert Cavanah), a high-placed apparatchik with surprising literary tastes.

He offers a swap: reading confiscated mail to Maria Celia in return for snippets of her next story, and the sexual and intellectual tensions of this unconventional arrangement cause all kinds of trouble.

It's an intriguing play, and very well acted, although the smooth build-up of the first half is somewhat betrayed by the jagged scene changes of the second.

But as an examination of power-play it's a cleverly constructed microcosm of a repressive regime, with an optimistic punchline. Art, like Maria Celia, is ultimately indomitable, whereas the might of the military is endlessly compromised by the mind behind the gun. Nina Caplan

Until Saturday 25th October, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road W6, Mon to Sat 7.45pm, £12, £8 concs. Tel: 020 8237 1111.

Two Sisters