My boyfriend turns to look at me, giving me a look that says ‘where the hell are we going?’, and I have to agree. Crouch End is literally Mordor. Tucked away in Zone 3, we arrived to atmospheric lighting and a speakeasy-vibe in a very modern arts centre. Even before we entered the performance space, I encountered a cute little typewriter pre-set in the bar – using the hashtag #wildatheart, it easily blended the modern with the antiquated.

The play’s title, taken from the Tennessee Williams quote “A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages”, promised three short plays about women being constrained and having to do what they can in order to survive…but the content itself actually didn’t show this, which wasn’t stellar. (Stella! Sorry. I had to.)

The play is said to be set in the 1940s, but both A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot and Hello From Bertha were published in the late 1950s and Portrait of a Madonna was published in 1946…and this isn’t even mentioning the times the plays were set in. There’s a lot of differentiation in these plays and there isn’t any sort of recognition of that in the production itself. The jazz they were playing was very reminiscent of the 1920s which, to me, is an anachronism – I don’t know if they were trying to just simplify the whole thing but it just felt a bit lazy.

Onto the performances themselves…The accents fluctuated between Russian, Australian and stereotypical southern American. Considering both theatre groups have a large amount of actors from Scandinavia, it would have actually been more effective in their normal accents. The second short play, Hello From Bertha, was the most interesting. The lights come up on a girl (Vala Fannell) in a brothel missing her old sweetheart; she looked the part of the dying prostitute with greasy hair and a pallid face, and was a key performer in my eyes.

One moment that could have been improved was the moment where the younger prostitute enters and exits the space frequently. I get the idea of girls being titillated due to the male attention, but it wasn’t as executed as well as it could have been; the girl running in and out of the same place could be more frequent and, she could come in from different entrances, in order to keep our attention.

The final short play Portrait of a Madonna explores an old maid who believes her lover has returned to her after marrying another – her performance, reminiscent of Miss Havisham with the messy hair, sweaty face and nightgown, was intriguing, and we don’t see ‘Richard’ so we never know if he’s actually there or if it’s just a figment of her imagination.

I was pleasantly surprised by the music. The choice of instruments, including double bass, clarinet, trumpet and trombone was unusual for such a small-scale production, but it wasn’t out of place; in fact, it enhanced the experience. Additionally, the set is beautifully intricate, which of course it needs to be, and certainly set the performances up in the right way.

Overall it became clear to me that this isn’t Williams’ best writing. The worlds don’t seal themselves shut as self-contained entities and, whilst the performances themselves were effective, we’re left wondering why these three plays were chosen and if they connect.

The Wild at Heart is playing HTH Arts Centre until 4 December. For more information and tickets, see the Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre website. .