Give Me Your Love, theatre review: Desperate battle to think outside the box

There's a long history of MDMA being used therapeutically, and this deceptively simple show from experimental company Ridiculusmus addresses the drug’s possible benefits for people in the grip of post-traumatic stress. It also ponders the stigma around mental illness and challenges received ideas about heroism.

David Woods plays Zach, a Welsh war veteran who has retreated into a cardboard box. We rarely see any part of him except his legs. Jon Haynes plays his wife Carol, whom we hear but don’t observe, as well as his friend Ieuan, who makes a blackly comic attempt to introduce him to the wonders of self-medication.

As Ieuan tries to claw his way into Zach’s dismal and impregnable flat, the characters’ faceless desperation calls to mind Samuel Beckett (especially Endgame). It prompts unsettling thoughts about how we get stuck inside identities imposed on us by others — and there’s a strong sense of the audience itself being trapped in a box. But this hour-long piece lacks the manic, shape-shifting verve and high-stakes humour that have defined the best of this dynamic company’s work.

Until January 30, Battersea Arts Centre (020 7223 2223, bac.org.uk)

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