Nicolas Billon’s 2004 play sets itself up as a psychological wrestling match between a senior psychiatrist and an inpatient at a mental health unit, believed to have vital information on a missing doctor. The police have arrived and the patient, Michael, an apparently devious 23-year-old, makes controversial claims with incriminating photographs. But what seems like an alleged sex scandal turns into something else entirely.
Under the direction of Jason Moore, the play casts doubt over both men who circle around each other like predators as they play out their power struggle and a game of truth or lie. We are played too, to some degree, though this 75-minute drama does not get under the skin and, more problematically, seems to draw the mentally ill patient as too much like a criminal, to be openly distrusted and disbelieved.
