CUT

Strongly performed and technically impressive, I feel a bit guilty about pointing out that this one-woman Australian show is not very good.

Nonetheless: the overwhelming problem with ‘Cut’ is writer-director Duncan Graham’s script, which is overblown, quasi-titillating nonsense. It’s a kind of post-’50 Shades of Grey’ fantasy in which an air stewardess is wracked by a mix of lust, fear and rage at an enigmatic man who appears to be stalking her. I really wanted to find hidden depths, and I’d be very happy to be proven wrong, but it did seem to be terrible, a soft porny monologue too overwrought to have much to say about actual real life sexual politics (it’s perhaps lazy to say it, but it feels telling that it’s written by a bloke).

Performer Hannah Norris is a terrifically engaging actor who throws herself into it wholeheartedly, even managing to leaven the portentousness with a splash of humour. And technical director Sam Hopkins works miracles with a low budget: the room frequently descends into total blackout, with Norris reappearing in startlingly different positions when the lights snap on. It’s a pleasingly disorientating effect: certainly the velvety darkness is considerably sexier than the words flopping out of it.