There's nothing like a good spy story on a dark winter's night and this new one from Dawn King is gripping and unsettling from start to (decidedly bitter) end. It's a satisfyingly twisty-turny — as well as non-chronological — thriller about a young woman who joins the British intelligence services, is killed and whose sister (played by the same actress; look out for the all-important leather jacket) starts to investigate the cause of her death.
There’s a suitably minatory atmosphere to rising star Blanche McIntyre’s confident production, which plays out on an appropriately anonymous-looking set. Large screens slide loomingly across the stage after each scene, spiriting characters on and off. All four actors double up roles, creating a deliberate sense of slippery identity, information withheld and potential double-crossing. It’s oddly satisfying to feel ourselves wrong-footed by this device, tricked like the characters by seemingly all-powerful spymasters.
Gráinne Keenan impresses both as try-hard new spy Justine and her wilder sister Kerry; Justine’s ability to blend into blandness, not to mention her facility for difficult languages, makes her the ideal recruit for icily calm boss Sunita (Shereen Martin). Occasional moments have the tang of cliché but Ciphers leaves us asking the discomfiting question: who is spying on the spies themselves?
Until Feb 8 (020 8743 5050, bushtheatre.co.uk)
