Ianto Jones needs his coffee – and a bacon roll – so where better than the local café, Baps?

Some years ago Alex Ross painted the graphic novel Marvels, which told the story of the (early parts of) Marvel comic book universe, not from the point of view of The Watcher, or Galactus, or even your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, but from the people who got caught in the middle. The people whose lives were affected by the battles between superheroes and villains, the ones who weren’t hit by trucks containing radioactive material. It gave a very different perspective on some of the key events. Telling an SF story through ordinary people, of course, wasn’t a new idea then – Nigel Kneale was using it from the start of his first Quatermass tale.

James Goss has done similar here for the life of Ianto Jones in Cardiff, from his arrival there after the Battle of Canary Wharf. Our focal points are Dave, who owns the café inherited from his mum who’s disappeared, and Kathy, who’s ended up in Cardiff and needs to save up to be able to leave. Ianto becomes a regular customer, sometimes welcome, sometimes very definitely not, and the play charts both the events of the first three seasons of Torchwood and the relationships between the three people.

Gareth David-Lloyd gets the opportunity to revisit the highs and lows of Ianto’s life and show both the caring and the more annoying side of the character (and Mr Jones gets called out for his dick moves in no uncertain terms!). Shaun Chambers and Sarah Griffin are great as Dave and Kathy, reacting to events in ways that are eminently credible. Joe Meiners’ sound design works well on both the large and intimate scale, as does Scott Handcock’s direction.

Verdict: A different take on familiar situations makes for a strong drama. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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