There's a patent sincerity to William Ivory's new play. It is clearly intended as a tribute to the men of RAF Bomber Command in the second world war, and as an expression of the need for faith in something beyond oneself. But, much as I admire the play's intentions and how it's performed, there is something overly contrived about the situation.
Ivory, who wrote the film Made in Dagenham, presents us with two characters. Jimmy is a cantankerous old so-and-so who was once a rear gunner in a bombing crew, and now lives in a care-home nursing his memories. Jimmy is, among other things, a dogmatic atheist. This makes for initial awkwardness when his new carer, David, turns out to be a troubled Catholic who has apparently undergone a nervous breakdown. As the two men get to know each other, however, we discover that both Jimmy's bullish aggression and David's religious devotion are carefully adopted masks.
I like the play best when it deals with the two men's mutual dependence. There is something touching and funny about the way the truculent Jimmy, who has prostate cancer and hardening of the arteries, relies on his carer, just as David needs some outlet for his faintly neurotic altruism. But observant realism gives way to dodgy metaphysics when the play starts speculating on faith and David undergoes a series of spiritual about-turns. Even the language becomes inflated as Jimmy, reliving his wartime experiences, talks about the need to "bear witness". Who, outside the pages of a book, ever uses such a phrase?
The main pleasure lies in watching James Bolam, who catches to perfection Jimmy's mixture of foul-mouthed irascibility and deep longing for companionship. Steve John Shepherd, working hard to find the inner core of the disturbed carer, makes a good foil, and Matt Aston's production, skilfully interweaving the flashbacks to wartime bombing raids, is a highly accomplished affair. But I'm still left questioning Ivory's desire to create a neat dramatic pattern out of two seemingly opposed characters.
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