After the End, Pleasance Courtyard

Dennis Kelly's tense two-hander begins in an underground nuclear shelter. Tony McGeever and Helen Darbyshire play colleagues, Mark and Louise; they'd been at her leaving drinks when a terror attack struck. Being a paranoid sort of guy, Mark's got a bunker in his backyard which he happens to keep all stocked-up with supplies. He's taken Louise there, apparently saving her life.

Unable to leave for two weeks in case of nuclear fall-out, it soon becomes something of a pressure cooker. Louise is brusque, brisk, and horrified at her inability to feel anything at the knowledge that everyone she ever knew is probably dead. Office dweeb Mark wants her to play Dungeons and Dragons with him, to keep her mind off things.

It's a seemingly innocent enough request, but her tetchy refusal to play along begins to expose unsettling faultlines in their relationship, and a power struggle which takes on increasingly nasty overtones ensues. Mark's paranoia - initially a source of comedy in what, in its early stages, is a very funny play - begins to grip. And After the End will go to some pretty brutal places in its hour and 15 minute run time.

Kelly's taut, expletive ridden script is realised skilfully here; both actors have cracking comic timing but they both also manage to take their characters to their cracking points with control, never straying into hysterics. The result is an absorbing and sharply delivered exploration of human behaviour, pushed to extremes.