A pleasant evening for Weightswatchers

OneWorld UK

By James Daniel

Its not particularly original in what it has to say, and its just five static characters on the same unchanging set, yet Weights, at the Blue Elephant Theatre in London, is entertaining and oddly satisfying.

The acting convinces, and after what felt like a slightly lumbering start, so does the script. The characters may be types, but after a while they draw you in.

Author Jesse Quinones is only 25, but he has diverse strands to draw on: born in Miami, he moved to London at the age of 19 and is of Cuban, Irish and Jewish heritage.

In a brief programme note he says that he visited Cuba three years ago to see his family for the first time, and that they are the inspiration for these characters, and these are their stories.

If so, he has an interesting family

When I started this play, he notes, I wanted to portray the lives of the people I had come across in Cuba.

I did not intend to write an overtly political play, but instead wanted to explore the gaps which exist within this society, between the dream this beautiful country was built on and the reality which has taken its place, between idealism and truth, between hope and despair.

Indeed, I didnt feel it shed particular light on Cuba though it might be beneficial if every tourist who has spent a holiday there watched the play and am sorry to miss the 28 March post-show discussion led by the director of London Metropolitan Universitys Caribbean Studies Centre: an informed debate might help tease out the nuances of Quinones views about the life on the island.

Nevertheless, its a pleasing, absorbing evening.

* Weights runs until 31 March. Blue Elephant, Camberwell.