Nick Darke died 10 years ago but his comic, grotesque, fearless imagination lives on. And it is Darke’s darkness that consumes his 1986 play, The Dead Monkey, directed with daring by Hannah Price. It is great to see a writer play dangerous, push narrative to its limits and this is a piece which could only work as theatre. In a Californian beach house, Hank (desperately entertaining James Lance) and his wife, Dolores (neurotic and immaculate Ruth Gibson), torment one another. A vet (wackily sinister Charles Reston) completes a vicious triangle that gives monkeying around horrible new meaning.
• The Dead Monkey is at the Park theatre, London N4, until 4 July
