THEATRE / An Aftertaste of Sherry - BAC, Lavender Hill, SW11

In Allison West's static and wordy double-bill of short plays, two pairs of black women reveal, in mutual soul-baring sessions, their problems with families and lovers.

Angela Wynter and Stacey Zuckerman play the cantankerous old bats of the first play and the women entering the grey zone of mid-life marital break- up of the second, with varying degrees of success. In the first, while Wynter alone achieves the posture and demeanour of old age, Zuckerman has by far the more convincing accent. The grumpy diatribes against ungrateful children here, however, are better realised than the schmaltzy gabble about relationships in the second half, where both actresses float adrift in the glutinous sea of West's trite, agony-auntie lines.

West (who, it turns out, is a man) has an ear for witty dialogue, although he tends to overload the plays with crackling epigrams. What he doesn't have is a great sense of dramatic situation or a consistent feel for character. All the women do is sit around and drink sherry. When the words begin to pall, there's nothing else to hold the attention.

Joan-Ann Maynard directs adequately, but since the plays are better suited to the radio than the stage it's an inauspicious debut for Black Theatre Co-operative's new director.

To Oct 25, 071-223 2223