Russell Tovey on stage throughout the 60-minute drama [Helen Murray]

THE GUILTY
Donmar Warehouse
3.5 stars

A police officer’s night shift proves a nail-biting drama in Chloë Moss’s version of The Guilty, based on the original 2018 Danish film Den Skyldige and the 2021 US remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Joe (Russell Tovey) is a control room operator, answering 999 calls and coordinating the response.

Unfolding in real time over 60 minutes, the play reveals why Joe has been taken off his usual duties, ahead of a disciplinary hearing the following morning, and why his wife doesn’t want him contacting their daughter.

At first the calls he takes are routine – a traffic accident, a complaint about a party – but then he receives an alarming call from Emily, who claims to have been abducted by her partner, her two young children left at home alone. Joe goes into emergency mode and, as he tries to work out what is happening, we realise he’s a man who does not always follow the rules and prefers to trust his instincts.

His response to Emily’s distress eventually forces him to confront the truth about himself and his own guilt.

It’s directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett, working with his frequent collaborator sound designer Gareth Fry. Sound is crucial, immersing us in the action and ratcheting up the tension as we hear the voices in Joe’s headset.

Tovey, remaining onstage throughout, vividly conveys Joe’s shifting emotional registers against Alex Eales’s spare backdrop of computer screens, a drooping plant and a water cooler.

The result is compelling with some unexpected twists along the way.

Until August 15
donmarwarehouse.com/