Answered Prayers

Selma Dimitrijevic is a rare living playwright who doesn't make me want to tear my ears off and throw them at the stage. In Sandy Grierson, she has an actor who knows enough about physical theatre not to look like he is beating time between the words. Clocking in at around half an hour, A Prayer satisfies both my secular and spiritual desires, capturing the complexity of a plea to God in an awkward, authentic, symbolic monologue.

Grierson's M is a man in crisis. Lacking the strength to go on, he prays to a God he doesn't like much, or even acknowledge. When God turns up – played with reticence by the audience – M argues, begs and finally triumphs. For a play by an avowed atheist, it is a compelling picture of a life dependent on faith, and the difficult process of prayer itself.

Being short, it is focused. Dimitrijevic knows when to let the words stop and the body take over. There is precision in the direction and an abstract universality in the setting. The company, Greyscale, are heroic in using the A Play, A Pie and A Pint format to explore both difficult territory and experimental staging.