Microcosm

Hooded youths are on the prowl, ‘looning about on the streets’ beneath twentysomething Alex’s new flat. He’s a liberal sort of guy, but worried for the safety of his girlfriend, and when Mr UKIP from next door begins dropping poison in his ear it all goes a bit ‘Rear Window’ and he locks himself into a sweatbox of constant surveillance and confused complaints to the police.

There’s something fascinating buried in writer Matt Hartley’s clammy drama, but despite a deliciously crawly performance from John Lightbody as Tom Cruise-obsessed right-winger Philip, it fails to rise coherently to the surface. Neither Alex (Philip McGinley) nor his partner Clare (Jenny Rainsford) have much about them, and Rainsford in particular is saddled with some seriously soapy dialogue.

It’s never clear what Hartley’s really getting at. He takes swipes at the easy swerve into Nimby intolerance and paranoia, but the hooded threats he alludes to fail to snap into focus and Alex’s descent into madness lacks tension. The politics are as muddy as the stakes, and Derek Bond’s flat and fussy direction leaves this ‘Microcosm’ feeling very micro indeed.