The Communist Threat

Immersing itself in the shadowy paranoia of postwar Europe, this taut thriller is sharply written and thoroughly engrossing. It evokes the works of John le Carré while neatly spotlighting the shifting social mores of class in 1950s Britain.

There's no fat on the lean script by Kieran O'Rourke and David Holmes, who play two secret service agents sent to kill a traitor in Vienna. Their encounter in a hotel basement unfolds with Pinter-ish economy, as Cambridge graduate Kip frostily engages with blunt, working-class northerner Albert. But is everything as it seems?

The play deftly juxtaposes patriotism with private life as it explores the web of lies and secrets that mesh the two men together. In both their writing and their on-stage rapport, O'Rourke and Holmes compellingly mix odd-couple humour with cold practicality as they ratchet up the psychological tension.

Director Jesse Briton fills his production with telling character details, from Kip's fastidious cleaning of a glass to Albert's disdain for cricket. In the terse silences that punctuate their conversations bristles a world of differences, distilling the changing culture of the British secret service into a game of double bluff that unfolds in an enjoyably unpredictable fashion.

Crisply staged, this well-paced show draws you in and keeps you gripped with its tale of furtive, compromised lives in an ominous, beige-toned world of locked rooms and vested interests.