In a re-imagined touring production of Winsome Pinnock’s thriller, One Under, commissioned by Graeae Theatre Company and co-produced with Theatre Royal Plymouth, the decision to keep the one act story at ninety minutes straight through pays off.

One Under, directed by Amit Sharma, keeps the setting simple and creatively flexible. The devices of creative captioning and audio description the piece throughout the whole tour opens up the opportunity to see a strong theatre piece to D/deaf audiences. The set design by Amelia Jane Hankin is suggestive of various venues and is used creatively by the cast who interweave between scenes and sit out on the side lines when not needed. This playing style gives the illusion that past and present are constantly intermingled in this gripping story of guilt and the quest for atonement.

The story begins as we hear of a young man called Sonny (Reece Pantry) who has fatally jumped in front of a train driven by Cyrus (Stanley J. Browne). Cyrus is given a chance for a hearing and time off work to recover from the incident. The mysterious circumstances of Sonny’s death haunt Cyrus to the degree that he goes on a search for answers to what happened in Sonny’s final hours. Secrets are kept, clues confuse and illumine the characters’ journeys and more secrets are shared along the way and, like any good thriller, there is a twist at the end.

As time catches up with events and, feeds back on them, we meet two other characters; a laundry worker called Christine (Clare Louise English) and Nella (Shenagh Govan). All four personalities examine the fragility of human relationships as the stories unfold and all four of the actors give us very human and sympathetic depictions of their roles and the interplay between them. One Under is definitely one to catch as it tours and the subtly written and acted stories certainly stay with you hours after the event.

One Under runs at Curve Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th October.

Recommended age 16+

We would love you to check out East Midlands Theatre Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Amazon link pages below. Click on images and please like and follow and share.

Our Amazon UK link to music, stage and screen books and all other products. Great offers.