Amy's View is the story of a young woman's relationship with her mother, and how this relationship evolves over a period of 14 years and survives - or doesn't survive - the vicissitudes of her troubled marriage and her mother's financial ruin.

Amy's mother, Esme (a superb performance by Laura Mazzola) is a fading West End actress. Her boyfriend Dominic (a suitably cocky and strutting Frank Brinkley) is an energetic young film critic, disparaging of the outmoded, self-obsessed world of luvvies that Esme represents. Amy is trapped between these two powerful personalities, and the development of the relationships between these characters makes for a compelling familial mini-saga which explores wider themes of class and art.

The play is divided into four long scenes, each separated by a number of years. This presents a challenge to the actors: not only do they have to cope with the perennial demand of most student theatre - portraying much older characters - they also have to show characters ageing. By and large they pull this off well, especially Jennifer O'Donnell as Amy, who is notably more confident, self-assured and careworn in the powerful third act, while recognisably the same optimistic and insecure girl we encounter at the start of the play.

David Hare, whose most recent play is the polemical The Permanent Way, an attack on the sorry state of the British railway system, is one of our most political writers. While this play centres on 'personal' themes of love, betrayal and the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship, it raises a number of political points. It satirises the suburban bourgeoisie, commuting from a synthetic countryside of Agas and village fetes to their spiritual home, the City. And it strongly criticises the cynical and rapacious greed of the institutions they work for - specifically Lloyds of London, the insurance group whose investors faced huge liabilities following a string of natural disasters in the 1990s. Hare also finds fault with the snobbish investors themselves, who were only too happy to enjoy the social cachet of being a 'Lloyd's Name' (real life Esmes included Camilla Parker Bowles and a number of Tory MPs).

All this - combined with discourses on the state of the theatre today and the function of criticism - gives you plenty to think about. Well worth watching; an intellectual as well as a moving emotional experience.

George Tew, 16/6/04