Wine of India @ Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester, 11 Jul

Nearly 30 years into the future and ageing is a thing of the past. Perfect health and perfect youth are easily obtainable. There’s no growing old, no sickness and no poverty. The catch? Everyone dies on time. Government-controlled euthanasia is the norm, and life-span is licensed, rather than natural.

This is the premise of Wine of India, a play by screenwriter Nigel Kneale which aired as part of The Wednesday Play series on BBC One in 1970. It was never repeated, however: the tapes were wiped and the play lost for decades. But now director Dan Thackery has taken on the formidable task of bringing it back to the live stage for the 21st century.

Taran Knight and Morag Peacock take lead roles as long-time couple Will and Julie, who have gathered with their family for a bizarre combination of funeral and cocktail party as their 'life contracts' are about to expire. A bewildering collection of family members surrounds them, and in this ageless society it takes more than a little concentration to discern between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren. Standout performances come from Will Hutchby as Sam, a (genuinely) young man seeking knowledge from his grandparents and raising some distinctly unwelcome questions, and Carole Bardsley, who plays unwanted guest Bee, a woman from Will’s past who has chosen to forgo this society's permanent youth.

Thackery and Lass Productions/Scytheplays seem to have stayed as true to Kneale’s original script as possible, with the play being a homage to the original production as well as its own stand-alone piece of theatre. Some clever staging and direction manages to fit a cast of nine people into the Lass O’Gowrie’s small theatre space without it seeming overcrowded. And while the somewhat retro styling and props mean the production lacks a modern sci-fi feel, the issues the play raises are more relevant than ever.

As the play draws to a close, Will and Julie face the state's preferred method of euthanasia: they must drink the Wine of India. And as the coldly official ‘undertaker’ Adam (Quentin Knight) makes a closing reference to the state-controlled manipulation of his ‘clients’, surely not a single member of the audience can leave without considering some of the challenging and timely moral questions to which Wine of India demands answers. [Conori Bell-Bhuiyan]