Into a house in a forest go a boy and a girl. Wolves howl. Inside, the boy and girl are fed gingerbread by a wise woman. Strange things happen in the night. Robin French’s new play seems part fairytale, part play of ideas.
In appearance, at first, it looks like a contemporary drama. Katy (Jeany Spark, below) is a struggling journalist. Nick (Olly Mott) is an upcoming photographer. Their paper has sent them to Paris where the acclaimed, publicity-shy Chilean pianist Silvia de Zingaro (Ruth Lass), on the eve of her retirement, will give them her first interview for a decade. If Katy can get Silvia to tell the secrets of her private life, it will be the scoop she dreams of.
By the time their delayed Eurostar arrives, Silvia has left Paris for her remote home in the depths of a forest, accompanied by her manager (Ben Onwukwe). Katy and Nick decide to follow her there.
A grand piano stands in a simple, high-ceiling interior. On the back wall, a clock ticks loudly. A change of light – the wall has gone; huge pine trunks advance towards us. Light changes, we are back in the room. Time and space, here, are not as elsewhere – and not just because, as the journalists discover, there are no wifi or mobile signals. Here, music reorientates the boundaries of perception via the compositions of Erik Satie (the title is taken from a set of his pieces) and associated ideas of the philosopher Henri Bergson.
French’s high concept/folkloric/realist drama mix is intriguing, but, in spite of a fine central performance from Lass as Silvia and occasionally witty direction from Elizabeth Freestone, it feels still unfinished - unshaped and overlong.
• At the Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 13 July
