★★★★☆
This is a brave play about a bleak subject, but if it deals with an appalling abuse of human rights, Joshua Sobol’s two-hander, while occasionally verbose, does not try to lecture the audience. At the centre are two passionate and confused human beings. They live in a faraway, unnamed country of which we know little, yet ultimately they could be us.
From the opening moments of this UK premiere — vigorously directed by the actor Brian Cox — we are confronted with a kind of horror. A woman is buried in the ground up to her chest. Parallels with Beckett’s Happy Days immediately spring to mind. However, this woman is awaiting execution by stoning for adultery. Behind her is a wall pitted with bullet