Three into two won't go

Here's a vivid, poetic, sparely staged slice of southern American black life. Tarell Alvin McCraney's play explores the fraught relationships that young Nigerian-American ex-con Oshoosi Size has with his straight-arrow older brother Ogun and with his slyly insinuating friend Elegba, who was, we gather, more than just a cellmate in prison.

It is set in Louisiana in the "distant present", but written, quite intriguingly, in a unique vocabulary of song, staccato vernacular, unspoken phrases and spoken stage-directions. It is brought to life by director Bijan Sheibani and three barefoot actors on a stage bare apart from a chalk circle and a handful of red dust. A working knowledge of the Yoruba myths on which it is based might add depth and insight to the play's immediate impact.

"Death kill the lazy last," says Obi Alili's Oshoosi, but he's too sweet-natured and easily led to have the courage of his indolent convictions. Bullied into taking a job at his brother's garage, he is then led back to the idea of cars as the means of escape, of "ultimate freedom", by Elegba, his prison "brother". The shapeless disaster we've felt looming duly unfolds in the front seat one night, but it brings the brothers briefly closer together even as it breaks them permanently apart.

We drop in and out of this story like voyeurs, learning partially or accidentally about the brothers' orphaned religious upbringing, the awful fate of one of Ogun's girlfriends, the nature of Oshoosi's crime. At times the story is frustratingly vague and digressive. But the layered intensity of McCraney's writing and the quality of the performances make it worthwhile.

Nyasha Hatendi can exhibit fierce rage but is at his best when he unclenches to show Ogun's tender side. Nathaniel Martello-White is all silky temptation as Elegba, while Obi Abili beautifully captures Oshoosi's child-like riot of emotions, one minute sulky, the next howling with lust over an imaginary woman.

This co-production between the Young Vic and Actors' Touring Company marks McCraney's British debut. This lauded and prolific writer is still only 27, and The Brothers Size is the first play in a planned set of sibling plays. I hope we hear more.

Until 8 Dec (020 7922 2925).

The Brothers Size
Young Vic, The Maria Theatre
The Cut, SE1 8LL