The collaboration between writer/performer Danny Braveman and director Nick Philippou has been thirty years in the making. For much of that time Braveman has been working in community contexts including London Bubble and Theatre Royal Stratford East whilst Philippou has been honing his skills at Actors Touring Company and the RSC amongst others. The influence of both strands of their work can be felt in this heartfelt performance which embraces its audience in an intimate conversational form that belies its careful crafting. It’s a piece that reflects the commitment of both artists to the radical, illustrating in action how politics are writ large through the personal. It’s also a moving family saga which carefully invites us in to the private minutiae of a fifty-year marriage, to comment on history, identity, and family.

The underpinning conceit is of a legacy box left to Braverman from his great-uncle, in which are discovered a lifetime’s worth of wage envelopes illustrated in pen and ink. Commenting on the everyday (and sometimes not so everyday) events of his uncle’s marriage and family life, the sketches bring to life the hidden worlds of our private lives while spanning a fascinating period of history in the depression of the 30s and the onset of World War Two. Braverman is also interested in illuminating a Jewish experience in London, peppering his stories with Hebrew phrases and insights, which seem to warmly invite us more deeply into his family’s perspective, as well as emphasising the place of this single family’s account in a wider experience.

Simply staged, with a plain white illuminated table projected via live feed camera to a large upstage screen, the procession of tiny drawings through time structures the storytelling, bringing out a poignant sense of life’s shortness and the curious impact affected by legacy objects. But don’t be fooled by Braverman’s gentle delivery, and the friendly conversational style. This is a show that packs an emotional punch and is filled with political and historical insight, making a powerful, fitting tribute to the humble cobbler whose lifelong passion for drawing forms its heart.