You can't fault Tom Morton-Smith's ambition: his debut play spans two continents, has scenes set more than 1,000 years ago and mixes English with Uzbek and Russian.

Set mostly in the direct aftermath of 9/11, it links two different episodes of terror: religious persecution in Samarkand in 1021 and the US 'war on terror' (via, rather oddly, the London plague of the 1660s).

In doing so it casts uneven but intriguing light on the recent history of Central Asia, with its terrorist fundamentalists, Soviet-induced poverty and instances of US intervention.

Morton-Smith tells the story through Dylan Singer, a self-loathing, failing writer who in 2002 sets off to Uzbekistan to write about the 12th-century Uzbek poet Omar Khayyám.

He dreams of discovering opium-soaked cultural exotica, only to discover instead that Soviet-era farming practices have reduced the area to dust.

With him is his alcoholic, Russian-speaking ex-girlfriend Nicola, played by Catherine Cusack (pictured with Damian O'Hare as Dylan), who may be drunk half the time but has a firmer grip on reality.

Director Paul Robinson squeezes all this on to Theatre 503's tiny stage with impressive clarity, although neither he nor the script manage to bring out the thematic echoes Morton-Smith presumably intended to underscore the action.

But, at its most focused, the play is a bold attempt to show the fate of individuals at the hands of governments. It is also well acted, and ultimately gripping.