Ben Lamb, Abigail Cruttenden and Katie Matsell in Ragdoll [Alex Brenner]

THE intimacy of the Jermyn Theatre’s stage perfectly suits the intensity of Katherine Moar’s Ragdoll. The play opens in 2017. Robert (Nathaniel Parker), one of America’s most famous attorneys, has written to Holly (Abigail Cruttenden) asking for her help, unaware she still resents his betrayal some 40 years earlier.

Ragdoll tracks back to 1978, where Holly (Katie Matsell), a young heiress, sits in a California prison awaiting trial for her role in a string of armed robberies. Robert (Ben Lamb), the hotshot lawyer employed by her super-rich parents, is her only hope of salvation.

Moar draws on the real-life story of American heiress Patty Hearst, who served time for participating in a bank robbery carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army, the guerrilla group that had abducted her months earlier. She was locked in a closet and raped during captivity.

In 2017, as #MeToo gains momentum, Robert is facing allegations of misconduct and a public reckoning. But Holly reminds him that he abandoned her younger self to face the consequences alone.

Moar packs a lot into her 75-minute play, shifting between past and present to reveal how Robert prioritised celebrity over justice. Having reached the top of his game, Holly became quickly expendable. The large cream leather sofa dominating Ceci Calf’s set is, for Robert, a marker of status – emblematic of his vanity and the hollowness of his vaulting ambition.

Josh Seymour’s assured production ignites in the final quarter, when the older characters begin to interact with their past incarnations. Superbly acted, this four-hander makes for quietly compelling drama.

Until November 15
jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/