Review Special Offer – A fascinating but claustrophobic study of strange entanglement | stage

TRed flags are raised and waved. This bizarre drama from debut playwright Jess Edwards (director of Hotter and Fitter) leads to a chance encounter in an abusive relationship. Shortlisted for several playwriting awards, the special arrives at a physical manifestation of entanglement theory, where two separate particles become inextricably linked. But there is a little romance here. Our nameless women wrap themselves around each other until none of them can breathe, as interdependence soon gives way to coercion.

Our tangled pair are Sex Education’s Patricia Allison and The Gold’s Stephanie Martini. From their first meeting in a stirring dialogue, Martini’s character – a wealthy 39-year-old artist recovering from alcoholism – is intense. Disgustingly. Her overly sincere flirtation seems to push Alison’s character – a 23-year-old physics PhD student – further away rather than closer. This pattern is repeated, with the surprise not in the artist’s transformation into a needy manipulator, but in the more entrenched student’s desire to be with her.

Whether it’s true or false, lesbian women are said to move fast in relationships. The pair’s chaotic love story includes a midnight invasion of the laboratory to see Alison’s quantum experiment, beautifully realized by Katya Hamilton’s pulsing lights and Josh Anew Gregg’s sizzling voice. But their actions have no lasting consequences. This supposedly career-threatening incident soon disappears, taking the stakes of the story with it.

The duo plays with their power dynamics in bed (and public restrooms), with Annie Kershaw’s direction and Hamilton’s lights creating brief, startling moments of seduction, like the after-image of a photographer’s flash, bodies silhouetted against thick blocks of nightclub color. Here, Alison’s character becomes cautious – once again. She likes being told what to do, but she doesn’t want that to extend beyond how they touch each other. For the Martini Artist, the shaky feeling of control becomes her whole world.

A faltering attempt is made at Stoppardian spin on love and science, with earnest explanations of scientific theories woven into the conversation and presented as grand metaphors. For London, for love, for the future. But the pressure of their separate lives shows up when they frantically tell each other they’re the same person, instead of making us feel like it’s true. Private View is a beautiful aesthetic exploration of an unhealthy relationship, but it’s really hard to root for — or worry about — a couple you don’t believe in.