The Same Deep Water As Me review, Donmar Warehouse

Two years ago the man in the car in front of me emergency braked as we approached traffic lights. I braked too late and slid into the back of him, cracking the number plate. He insisted on insurance details, duly given, but I told my insurers, Sheila's Wheels, that I would personally pay for the replacement plate if he took it further. A few weeks later I was told the following: without contacting me, they had paid the man £1000 for whiplash injuries, and 80 per cent of the  cost of a new car because of 'invisible damage' to the chassis from the 10mph slide. It was, they explained, cheaper to settle then fight. Oh, and by the way, you've just lost your 70 per cent No Claims benefits.

Car Wars

On that basis, Nick Payne's new play about the no-win no-fee personal injuries market, The Same Deep Water As Me, was high on the list of must-sees. At last: an unmasking of the dark arts practised by an industry where phoney claimants and dodgy solicitors exploit the fact that it's cheaper to settle than to fight. So we find ourselves in the Luton offices of Scorpion Claims - one of whose solicitors is breaking all the rules. When the two partners find themselves in a court battle involving their dodgiest claimant, we prepare for revealing insights: where are the loopholes that have enabled the growth and exploitation of our compensation culture?  What we get instead is incoherent arguments, and by default an incoherent plot.

Payne's gift for brilliant lines papers the cracks. But, as with his celebrated two-hander, Constellations, there's a point where progression plateaus. The journey commutes before the final stop. The characters here are not as charming, and neither is the premise, but a pukkah cast led by Nigel Lindsay and Daniel Mays, carries it, with John Crowley's direction moving things at a fast crack. The court scene is a struggle as half the team have backs to the audience, but it's very funny and highly entertaining. If a true representation of what happens, it should have been the focus of the whole play.

In conclusion: An interesting couple of hours with some terrific lines to chew on, but not enough follow-through and insufficient ideas to sustain the subject. Are all dodgy solicitors and claimants really working class or is that a way of ramping up the noise when the structure is quiet? There's insufficient character development to explain the ending.

References
Donmar Warehouse, Tickets
Monkey Matters on Constellations

Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, London WC2E    Run ends 28 September 2013