BWW Reviews: MATHEMATICS OF THE HEART, Theatre 503 at The Latchmere, February 12 2012

Dr Paul MacMillan is a brilliant mathematician, but not quite as brilliant as his recently deceased father. His brother, Matthew (aka Chancer), isn't brilliant at anything (as his father told him repeatedly by word and deed), but, as rebels do, he gets by on raffish charm. Paul's girlfriend Emma is brilliant at finding excuses for Paul's inability to commit to anything beyond the theoretical world of numbers (least of all her) and suffers for it. Zainab, Paul's new teaching assistant, is brilliant at tossing this awkward threesome up in the air through her coquettish combination of brains, beauty and overt MacMillan père worship. Kefi Chadwick's award-winning Mathematics of the Heart (at Theatre 503, The Latchmere until 3 March) follows these two odd couples as they circle each other, until, inevitably, desires and secrets spill forth.

Bella Heesom sparkles as smart and sexy Zainab and Mark Cameron has great fun with Chancer, an Oliver Reedish type not yet completely sozzled by the booze. Their story is a lot of fun and I'd liked to have seen more of it. But the play focuses primarily on Mark Healy's mathematician with the father fixation and Isabel Pollen's tight-lipped uptight Emma. Both characters pushed credibility to the boundary, as Paul had shown plenty of empathy for Zainab and his students when briefing her the requirements of teaching and Emma, a lawyer, would surely show a bit of initiative as their relationship slowly unwinds.

There's laughs along the way and great fun is had when Paul elicits the help of a boiler-suited motorcycle-helmeted subconscious self, who builds much of the boat that occupies centre stage for most of the performance. The characters' cajoling of the stage manager, whose musical choices don't always find favour, is a nice touch too, integrating perfectly with the script and offering the audience a moment's release from the claustrophobic atmosphere of Paul's living room.

The evening I saw the play, women outnumbered men about five to one in the audience and I've a feeling that this is a theatrical version of a chick flick bittersweet romcom, if such stereotyping is sustainable these days. I'll look out for Mathematics of the Heart II: Zainab's Story, because there's plenty left for her and Chancer to get up to and we'll have plenty of laughs finding out exactly how!