John Milton shares the writing credit with Jonathan Holloway in Red Shift's contemporary take on sin and guilt. Things are up close and personal in the Pleasance Beyond, where the lithe Slovenian nanny is proving too tempting for successful business and family man, Peter. He enjoys the fact that she makes him feel young and alive again. He wants more than a house, car, family and bike rides in the park, and this modern Eve is offering a bite of her apple. "I used to read Samuel Beckett," he says, wistfully.
The banality of the scenario and the sexual stereotypes are deliberate here. It is not the way that the tale pans out to its eventual and inevitable sordid end that matters, so much as the way the story is told. Working with only a bed, three simple lights and Sarah Llewellyn's insistent soundscape, the production creates an intense intimacy that implicates its audience; you feel slightly soiled watching it. It also boasts two assured and brave performances, from co-director Graeme Rose as Peter and Stephanie Day as the nanny.
Shot through with Milton's heroic poetry, shifting between the external and internal, this is an accomplished and tautly staged 50 minutes, even if it is not an entirely enjoyable experience. But why would it be? This is frank and full frontal, about the lies we tell ourselves, and the sins we would commit if we know we could get away with them. It shines a light, and it's not surprising when we squirm.
