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THEATRE Afterbirth Arcola, E8 Benjamin Davis THIS brilliant first play by Dave Florez is an absorbing piece of sink-estate realism.

Baz, a neglected teenager from a broken home, finds refuge from his tough environment by caring for his baby brother.

Savage language and a destitute set promise a play straight out of the "gritty" stable.

The grit - multiracial, multigenerational buggery, whoring and glue sniffing - is mostly unseen, and the lights fade whenever something distressing is in the offing.

Consistent with the spare text and staging is the slow pacing. It is rare to find a director who uses silence as beguilingly as Deborah Paige.

She has the confidence to show completely silent scenes, such as when Madonna, a 13-year-old prostitute, stands mute against the slanted shadows of the Venetian blinds, popping her bubblegum in defiance of a corrupt policeman. Equally, a giant Mafiosi in a fur coat needs no words to create menace.

David Judge is disarmingly tender as Baz. He is not a gutter- mouthed delinquent, he is a deeply sensitive, repressed soul, who only wants to be able to act his age. "Just remember what you are," the Policeman tells Madonna in an attempt to demean her. The strength of these quiet, dignified characters is that deep down, they never forget.

. Until 1 October (020 7503 1646).

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