Not Black and White: Category B

As the National Theatre opens its long-awaited Black Theatre Archive, the ever-intrepid, always-inquiring Tricycle presents a season of three new plays from African-Caribbean writers.

With a brief to look at society from a black perspective, 'Not Black and White' is a laudable project even if (Kwame Kwei-Armah's 'Seize the Day' excepted) less obvious lines of enquiry (the recession, the environment, the education system) are left unexplored.

Nevertheless, Roy Williams's 'Category B' makes a confident case for the defence. In the same way his 2003 play 'Fallout' examined what rapper Skinnyman termed the 'council estate of mind', here Williams places the fragile ecosystem of a fictional London prison under his grainy but sentimental gaze.

Through the complex relationship between prison warden Ange (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) and volatile prisoner Errol (Karl Collins) Williams brings the power struggle between the screws and the prisoners into sharp focus; so too the way in which institutionalised corruption permeates every emotional transaction.

As prison topdog Saul, Jimmy Akingbola struts around Rosa Maggiora's stark, steel set like a genetically modified cock - all facial ticks and prison perfect physique, while Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Aml Ameen offer the most quietly plausible performances of the evening as humourless, new prison warden Saunders and convicted young rapist Rio respectively. It gets off to a slow start and Paulette Randall's otherwise sure-footed production could do more to create a sense of menace but 'Category B' offers a fresh insight into the familiar story of life behind bars.