Sea Wall

Sea Wall is about as simple as theatre gets: one man on stage, talking unassumingly under minimal lighting. But thanks to Simon Stephens's measured, subtle script, and a mesmerising performance from Andrew Scott, it's a remarkably affecting half-hour.

Alex seems content with life: he speaks rapturously about his beautiful wife and young daughter. His talk meanders good-naturedly – and, it seems at first, aimlessly. However, thanks to Olivier Award-winner Scott's bashful charm and laconic delivery, the play is immediately compelling. Stephens' witty script is sensitive to the idiosyncracies of spoken English, and the language never sounds forced as Alex talks about his work, and—more significantly—the arguments he has about God with his Christian father-in-law.

Naturally, Alex's life isn't as pleasant as it seems. Out of nowhere, he makes the startling announcement that 'I have a hole running through the middle of my stomach' - only to change the subject immediately. He tells us ominously about the titular sea-wall: a place in the ocean where a shallow seabed suddenly plunges to terrifying depths. Slowly a story emerges, a spiral of regret focussing on a seaside holiday, and a tragedy which the narrative only reluctantly confronts.

It speaks volumes for Stephens' powers of restraint that the climactic point of his script is when Alex says nothing; that the meaning is plain even though he's unable to utter the all-important sentence. By the end of this economical but moving piece, Alex's musings on life and God no longer seem aimless; they have become urgent, and desperately sad.