Ines Wurth grew up in Yugoslavia under Tito's rule with a granny who swore like a trucker and an irascible, tough-as-old-boots mum who locked her in a cellar. Her splendidly titled one-woman show follows her journey to the US and her return, years later, to a country that had disintegrated in her absence.
There's no doubt that Wurth's life story is worth telling. When she gives an account of being questioned by Serbian soldiers on a train in Kosovo, it's gripping. And you want to know more about Wurth's crusty, complicated family. It's funny when she finds out that her mean old next-door neighbour is, in fact, her grandfather. But the show goes gooey-sweet.
Brandishing pom-poms and wearing an adorable Young Pioneers' outfit reminiscent of a cheerleader's get-up, the actress gives a genial but weirdly stiff performance, spending a large chunk of the play adopting an off-puttingly cutesy child's voice.
What's more, the script isn't sharp and stringent enough: it's too eager to charm and to make us reach for our supply of tissues, and Mark Soper's direction doesn't rescue the evening from the temptations of sentimentality.
This memoir of youth and communism badly needs an injection of documentary grit and some iron in its soul. As it stands, it comes dangerously close to harmless schmaltz.
Until Sep 22, Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street E8, Tue to Sun 8pm, Sat mats 2.30pm, £12, £9 concs. Tel: 020 8985 2424. www.hackneyempire.co.uk Rail: Hackney Central
I Miss Communism
Hackney Empire Studio Theatre
Mare Street, E8 1EJ
