Driftwood review: Atmospheric but ungoverned debut play

Cat White (Ruby) in Driftwood - (Marc Brenner)

Caribbean heat bubbles through Martina Laird’s atmospheric but ungoverned debut play, set on the brink of independence for Trinidad and Tobago in 1962 and scripted in musical “Trini” Creole. An accomplished stage actress as well as a stalwart of The Bill, Casualty and EastEnders, Laird has a flair for dialogue and arresting scenarios.

Here, three members of a fragmented black family vie for advantage within the controlling structures of old-school British colonialism and newly aggressive, expansionist, frankly criminal American capitalism. It’s set, with heavy symbolism, in a “gentleman’s club” that’s basically a brothel.