I, Who Have Hands More Innocent

The artistic scope of Vesna Parun, "the most famous female Croatian poet of all time", encompassed much; it's appropriate that when she is brought to life, in Vesna Tominac Matacic's minimalist one-person show, she finds herself sitting on a map of the world almost too small to contain her. Parun's work began with romantic love, but went on to embrace the political, satirical and erotic, and I, Who Have Hands More Innocent does the same. Building a dramatic monologue from selections of Parun's most autobiographical verse and prose, the play is a sometimes blistering, sometimes tender journey through innocence lost, love betrayed, the brutality of history and Parun's own lifelong defiance.

Spoken entirely in Croatian, Matacic's impassioned characterisation is rendered in English by unintrusive projection. The success of surtitles depends on how well they are framed onstage; in this, I, Who Have Hands More Innocent strikes a necessary balance, ensuring the audience can keep up with both the reading and the performance onstage.

Matacic's is a quietly mesmerising presence, transitioning naturally through the facets of Parun's feelings and personality – by turns nostalgic, bitter, cynical, romantic, loving, hopeful, hopeless and hysterical. The experience of growing up in patriarchal Croatia is vividly evoked, while the horrors of the second world war are made even more poignant by how lightly they're touched upon.

Some sections run a little long, and the play's conclusion feels rushed, but both issues are understandable given the nature of the material being adapted. A powerful, well-judged piece of theatre.