Danny Morrison's play receives its world premiere at this small Islington venue because nobody in Ireland, north or south of the border, would stage it. You might expect from this that the former IRA man and Sinn Fein publicity director had concocted a tub-thumping Republican rally cry but The Wrong Man is a more considered affair than that.
Set in 1984, when the British tactic of supergrass trials was sending shockwaves through the IRA, it starts with Tom 'Tod' Malone (Chris Patrick-Simpson) hooded and tied to a chair. His captors give the impression they are Loyalist gunmen and Tod begs for his life, saying he's an IRA informer. When the hood's removed, he discovers he's been interrogated by his comrades, who'd been grimly expecting such a confession: things proceed to get worse.
The play spools back from this incident to moments in Tod's recent past: his womanising ways; his doubts about continuing in the movement; his guilt over the UDR man he gave up to his colleague Raymond (a brilliantly controlled performance from Brendan Mackey).
Morrison skilfully evokes the grinding banality of lives caught in this struggle, of lofty principles causing nothing but grief - brilliantly demonstrated through Tod and Raymond's women - and of the simplest human frailty being potentially fatal.
And it's a good twist to have Tony Devlin and Liam McMahon (both impressively menacing) play Tod's IRA interrogators at the start and RUC interrogators at the end of this starkly staged performance: both sets of men convinced of their rightfulness and determined to break their captive by any means necessary.
Until Apr 3, Pleasance Theatre, Carpenter's Mews, North Road N7, Tue to Sat 7.45pm, Sun 5.15pm, £8, £6 concs. Tel: 020 7609 1800. Tube: Caledonian Road
The Wrong Man
