It is perhaps a sign of the paucity of really good new writing on the fringe that this stage premiere of Anthony Neilson's six-year-old radio play looks quite as good as it does. Then perhaps it is also because it is a genuinely superior piece of writing full of Neilson's sharp observations on the twisted workings of the human mind. It also gets a really first-rate, unshowy production from Rapture.
Willis has spent nine years in prison for the murder of a 20-year-old woman. Now the possibility of parole is being dangled in front of him. His fate is in the hands of a woman psychiatrist. Can Willis persuade her that he should get his freedom, and what exactly is it that she needs persuading of?
Lyn McAndrew as the doctor and Mike Tibbets as the quietly desperate Willis are both outstanding as the adversaries in this cat-and-mouse scenario where it is not entirely clear who is playing the mind games. Perhaps the play ties itself up a little too neatly at the end, but it is a quietly gripping dissection of the intimacies of murder.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0131-226 5425.
