Here in America review: An intellectually claustrophobic take on the McCarthy hearings

Orange Tree Theatre until October 19

Tickets: 020 8940 3633

Once the angry academic playwright, David Edgar has mellowed with age, though the fire of injustice still glows brightly.

This is a distillation of the McCarthy Hearings that gripped America in the 1950s and wrecked the careers of many liberal-minded artists. The HUAC blacklisted many writers/directors and actors who refused to name 'names' of those who might have been Communist Party members.

Among the most famous to be summoned were close friends director Elia 'Gadg' Kazan (Shaun Evans) and playwright Arthur 'Art' Miller (Michael Aloni) who duke it out with characteristic articulacy over why each made the decision he did.

Their simmering rivalry gets personal with the arrival of the young Marilyn 'Miss Bauer' Monroe (Jasmine Blackborow), while Kazan's wife, Day (Faye Castelow), is exposed as the smoking gun behind her husband's notorious decision.

Director James Dacre maintains a sense of intellectual claustrophobia throughout.