Peter has everything going for him. He's a sharp young barrister with a loving girlfriend, and his set-up seems enviable. Until, that is, his computer sends out a mass e-mail with an attachment that turns the stomach of everyone who opens it. When he asks Mike, his computer boffin brother, to wipe his whole hard drive, Mike confiscates his machine: he knows 'there aren't any viruses like that'.
Peter, we realise, has done more than just glance at porn, and Future Me follows him through his time in a prison segregation unit, group therapy and back to life on the outside.
Dramas about paedophilia are ten-a-penny, but Future Me is several cuts above the average. Yes, it is painful to sit through, but there is a thoughtfulness and an unexpected, peppery humour to Stephen Brown's script that prevents it from grinding you down in gloom.
This is a play about human weakness as well as abuse, and Guy Retallack's production, played out on an eerie set of sliding shower curtains, is alert to the way people care about yet fail each other.
And there are noteworthy performances from David Benson as an unrepentant, vinegar-faced paedophile, and David Sturzaker as Peter (pictured with Kelly Williams as Jenny), a man struggling to take charge of his life - and asking us to believe that, maybe, he's more than what he's done.
Until Jul 7, Theatre 503, 503 Battersea Park Road SW11, Tue to Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm, £12, £7 concs, Tue pay what you can. Tel: 020 7978 7040. www.theatre503.com Rail: Clapham Junction
Future Me
Theatre 503, The Latchmere Pub
Battersea Park Road, SW11 3BW
