Confronted as you enter the space by a sweat-drenched, whimpering man in a strait-jacket accompanied by a Hitchcock-esque backing track, the audience are tense and on edge from the start. And then the fun begins. This is a rollercoaster of emotion. There is love, death, sex and religion, beautifully conflicting while the bare, simple staging and stunning silhouetted scenes keeps it all from getting too confusing. With some convincing performances (notably the protagonist, Adam, who rarely leaves the stage and yet flits between a shaking maniac to a loving husband in a heartbeat) and perfect comic relief provided by the sinister 'Gnome', this play should draw you in and keep you on the edge of your seat. Almost, but not quite. At times movement on stage distracts from the main dialogue and the sympathy we should feel at the idea of a baby fated never to be born is lost due to the 'pillow-under-a-jumper' trick being glaringly obvious. Some scenes lack the passion needed to induce empathy in audience members and unfortunately empathy is exactly what needs to be sustained to appreciate the full impact of the show. This performance teeters on the brink of being rapturous but never quite gets there, though no doubt this will improve as time goes on and with a little more passion, it most certainly will.
