For topicality alone, this latest piece from emerging playwright Dennis Kelly is a winner. There has been a horrific terrorist attack - nuclear, this time -and Mark has rescued his colleague Louise from the cloud of radioactive dust.
Obsessive geek that he is, Mark is the proud owner of a flat with an old nuclear fallout shelter in the garden. And with his habit of always preparing for the worst, he has kept it fully stocked with several days' rations of essentials. Now, he tells Louise, all they have to do is wait.
Thus the compelling scenario is set and at first, for two people whose world has quite literally collapsed around their ears, the young pair remain remarkably calm.
Louise, obviously the object of Mark's awkward, barely expressed affections, alternates between placation and teasing. But we begin to suspect that cabin - or bunker - fever cannot be staved off for ever, especially when Louise frets that "it's like time's turned off ".
Duly, the latent tension crackles and erupts thrillingly via the unlikely catalyst of a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
From here on, the performances of Tom Brooke, all staring-eyed nerdiness, and Kerry Condon become even more remarkable, as the primeval urge to secure those most basic of human requirements, food and water, turns Mark and Louise into the deadliest rivals.
Condon appears to lose weight before our eyes, pacing Miriam Buether's claustrophobic cylindrical set with fearsome intensity.
A plot this taut does not require any twists but, even here, Kelly refuses to stint, leaving us unsure about the world outside the tiny porthole right until the climatic, disorienting revelation.
Such lucid and sparky writing, complemented by a fine production from Roxana Silbert, will surely be rewarded when the annual prizes for new work are handed out.
- Until 8 October. Information: 020 7610 4224.
After The End
