Nicola Walker in The Unbelievers [Brinkhoff-Moegenburg]

I RARELY watch the crime procedurals on television featuring missing persons and fractured families, so Nick Payne’s The Unbelievers, with its focus on the emotional fallout from a teenage boy’s disappearance, feels fresh and affecting.

In Marianne Elliot’s finely judged production, Nicola Walker plays Miriam, the mother of a family torn apart by the disappearance of 15-year-old Oscar. Separated from David (Paul Higgins), she lives with her children Margaret (Elly Lily Hyland) and Nancy (Alby Baldwin).

Her former husband Karl (Martin Marquez), now a vicar, remains part of the family.

Each character responds to loss in different ways, but Payne is primarily concerned with Miriam’s steadfast belief that her son is still alive and her increasingly volatile resistance to anyone who doubts it: the unbelievers.

The non-linear narrative moves between three timelines: one week, one year and seven years after Oscar vanished. Miriam’s faith never falters and she is incensed when David proposes a memorial at the seven-year mark.

Margaret seeks solace in a relationship with an older man Benjamin (Harry Kershaw), while Nancy attempts a séance with their girlfriend Mia (Isabel Adomakoh Young).

The atmosphere of unresolved emotion is punctuated by moments of humour that offer welcome relief, though they occasionally feel shoehorned in. David’s new partner, Lorraine (Lucy Thackeray), abruptly shifts the tone toward the social satire of Abigail’s Party, while Benjamin droning on about puffins is funny, if slightly jarring.

Bunny Christie’s striking design features a waiting room upstage, separated from the main playing area by a glass partition, where the actors sit between scenes.

Walker is pitch-perfect as a mother at the end of her wits, her insurmountable grief isolating her from her family, while the terrific supporting cast deliver equally layered, compelling performances.

Until November 29
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