Toyer

A serial sadist known as "The Toyer" is out there; he drugs, rapes and lobotomises women, leaving them permanent vegetables. Psychiatrist Maude Christopher, who has care of his victims, is frustrated and edgy; plus, her car is giving trouble. When a young man from her tennis club offers to help with it, she says yes thanks and admits him to her apartment when he calls.

He is flouncingly gay, before he drops the mask; then he is a voyeur who has been stalking her, and means nasty business. But no; another mask is discarded, and he is "The Toyer" and she his next victim. Or is he, in yet another identity shift, a kind of method actor building a role through real-life experiment, finally sorry when he realises that he has gone much too far?

That's roughly the first act. The second moves from psychological tension, as the two characters probe each other, to plot mechanics, as the author, American Gardner McKay, seeks to bring matters to a climactic ending. It would be invidious to give away the denouement, but it just about drags the duel across the finishing line before overtaxing one's credulity.

Tom O'Leary displays a chameleon excellence as the what's-it and Aenne Barr is a steady, in-the-groove Maude. Robert Lane designed and directs this excursion into escapism, which certainly eases the burden of consciousness throughout its painless span.

Continues until July 18th. To book, phone: 01-6703361.