On her way home from church, nubile teenager Flo, already set apart from the rest of the community because of her orphan status, is raped by the local clergyman. Instead of supporting her, the South African community where she lives - a hotbed of gossip and prejudice - closes ranks. Flo, the outcast, is driven to take up residence in the forest, where she starts digging a hole, a refuge against the rest of the world. When the town is hit by floods, and then by drought, the townspeople look around for somebody to blame, and soon the witch hunt begins.
It is mind-boggling just how much of the world can be conjured by just two actors, a bucket and a watermelon. Andrew Buckland and Lionel Newton's piece of "poor" theatre turns out to be exceptionally rich in this dark tale of small-mindedness in a small South African town. It mixes social realism, satire and magic realism in equal measure, as it considers the strong human desire to reject, blame and demonise.
The mixture of comedy and much darker undercurrents is reminiscent of a South African Stones in His Pockets, as is the way the two performers play a myriad of parts - from the story's frog narrators through to many of the town's inhabitants, including the pompous clergyman and his simpering wife, the malicious old ladies and the teenage girls so self-obsessed that they have no compassion. Its failings are also those of Stones in His Pockets: a certain muddiness of narrative and a falling back upon stereotypes for easy comic effect.
But Buckland and Newton are extraordinary performers, and the entire show has a virtuosity that is all the more impressive because the format is so simple and not showy. There is an argument that the show slightly lets the audience of the hook because it plays so much to the gallery with the comedy, but when the piece gets the balance right the effect is quite brutal. The so-called community meeting that spills into mob violence makes you laugh as it sends a shiver up your spine.
Until May 1, then touring Box office: 020-8237 1111.
