A tale of two-storeys

A tower block awaits demolition. An enterprising young theatre company decides to commemorate its passing with a last-gasp, site-specific piece. Smart move.

St Catherine's, one of three 20-storey blocks on the Beaumont Estate in Leyton, was considered a des res when it was built in 1962. Now a run-down heart-sink of a place, it will be gone by Easter.

Using information gleaned from interviews with residents past and present - eight families valiantly remain - Offstage Theatre has concocted a poignant, if slight, family drama that unfolds in one of the deserted flats.

Before the applause, a caveat. Whether justified or not, a project like this perforce has a whiff of ghetto tourism about it, of London's middle classes taking a daring evening out in the badlands.

Director and co-writer Cressida Brown cannot fully free Home from this sensation, although once we are settled in the living room, general qualms fade as specific details start to grip.

Mother (excellent Miranda Cook) is worried. "Something happened" the previous evening and she thinks her aggressive teenage Daughter might have been involved. Son just wants to get on with his boxing and win a gold in 2012, but there are the local gangs to contend with.

We follow the querulous trio briskly around the two-storey dwelling, wondering all the while how the sense of community that Mother assures us used to exist has transmuted into such aggression and desperation. This erstwhile "palace in the sky" now seems desperately far from Heaven.

Until 4 February. Information: 020 7424 9441.

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