Theatre review:Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

It's billed as an adaptation of a novel, but Patrick Hamilton's Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky actually turns out to be three of them, a trilogy of interconnected stories about working class Londoners in the 1920s. It means Simon Reade's adaptation of them into a single two-hour show can be called brave at the very least, possibly foolhardy - it does explain something about the rather stilted evening we end up with, always hovering on the edge of something charming but never really getting there. At the centre of the story is a pub, The Midnight Bell, and two of the bar staff: Bob (Jordan Scowen) has been carefully building up his savings, but his inability to stand back when someone he cares about is in need means he's lately become prone to sudden acts of generosity, handing out cash to people like his longtime friend and coworker Ella (Rosalind Lailey.)The trouble starts when he falls in love with prostitute Jenny (Yanexi Enriquez,) who's very convincing at appearing to…