Review: The Straits (Corn Exchange, Newbury) It is May 2, 1982. Three teenage boys laze languidly in Speedos beside the sea in Gibraltar, talking big, talking dirty, talking patriotically of approaching war far away, where (as the Sun has yet to gloat) 'our boys' are going to 'shove it up their junta'. The trio are all sons of servicemen stationed in 'Gib'. The toughnuts Doink (James Marchant, pictured right) and Jock (Freddy White) have been rather longer on the island than the milder-mannered Darren (Peter McNicholl) who is trying hard - perhaps too hard - to become a fully fledged member of the gang.

That means imbibing all the lessons in hate supplied by his mates - chiefly Doink, than whom it is hard to imagine a bigger bigot, a bigger braggart. Ignorant in most matters, he is nonetheless fully up to speed on the foreign policies of Mrs Thatcher. "If we let the Argies have the Falklands," he says, "the Spanish could just walk in here and have this place."

Thankfully, Doink's brother Steve is doing his bit to settle Galtieri's hash, as a sailor aboard HMS Sheffield.

Hearing Doink's boastful mention of the name of this vessel signals straightaway to the audience at The Straits that all might not turn out happy-ever-after in this drama. Sure enough, Gregory Burke's excellent play, which was performed to huge acclaim at last year's Edinburgh Festival, takes on a much darker hue as the action advances further into that momentous May.

Adding to the troubles of the boys - Darren's especially - is the arrival on the scene of his sister Tracy (Alice O'Connell). While repelled by the lads' gung-ho attitudes, she is simultaneously drawn by their sex appeal. When she makes a dangerous admission about Darren's earlier life - that he has been a victim of bullies - the scene is set for him to prove himself a man, in a way he thinks the others will applaud. But, by then, events in the South Atlantic have led Doink to a hasty revision of his opinions about manly duty . . .

This is a gripping, hard-hitting play from the much-respected Paines Plough company, under director John Tiffany. It can be seen again from next Tuesday to Saturday at Warwick Arts Centre.

Christopher Gray