Martin Crimp is not giving much away in his latest work. Time and place are left unspecified and the four characters have numbers rather than names. In these three 20-minute playlets, the characters do not even talk about themselves.
On Tom Pye's bare white set, bisected only by a white table, the actors fastidiously avoid each other's gaze. As they take turns with their staccato lines, we start to wonder whether they are aware of anything external at all, such is the introspective focus of James Macdonald's taut production.
From the first line - "She gets married very young, doesn't she" - the actors build up the scenario. The story, about houses and husbands and kids, darkens frighteningly and by the time we reach the third playlet, the news that "there are fewer emergencies than there used to be" perfectly encapsulates the sense of security circled by terror that Crimp specialises in.
By no means an easy hour of theatre, Fewer Emergencies offers nonetheless absolutely no cause for alarm.
Until 1 October (020 7565 5000).
Fewer Emergencies
