This strongly written drama is based on a simple, improbable, scenario: one brother a successful writer, the other serving a long prison sentence for murder. Yet it is a true story and the writer is the author of this piece. The other sharp difference between the two brothers is that the prisoner is a white supremacist, the writer a ‘woke’ liberal. This tension, the intellectual core of the play, results in some of the dialogue sounding over-written for the context. But the other main component is the desire for reconciliation between the brothers, for which each needs a deeper understanding of the past. This, too, makes big demands of the performers, but the play successfully achieves its high, humane ambitions.

Traverse Theatre, until 24 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Alan Cranston]