Safety ****

It’s an intimate environment: a comfy chair, standard lamp, books, drinks. It feels safe. We have stepped into psychotherapist Adam’s domain.

Adam tells us about his sessions with Isabel. Her issues, while important to her, should be meat and drink to a man with his training, qualifications, experience and empathy.

But he’s distracted: he’s wistfully thinking about another client, Bill. Isabel is clearly nobody’s fool and calls him out on his failure to listen, especially when paid an eye-watering £200 per hour.

Bill uses his charm to navigate the situation, but an ethical quagmire soon arises in any event. Isabel is complaining about her boss, whom he realises is another of his clients. It represents a clear conflict of interest. He deftly palms her off to a colleague, citing a lack of expertise. This is, of course, ostensibly to protect confidentiality.

While attending a conference, Adam has a sexual liaison with Doug. It seems that they are both acting mechanically, rather than seeking a genuine emotional connection. It’s awkward at breakfast.

When he was younger, like many children, Adam had a pen pal. Usually, such relationships, based on no real connection, naturally wither, but Adam maintained this friendship for some time. Things went awry when his pen pal failed to reply quickly enough. Adam responded with a witheringly cruel letter to the child — only for a letter explaining the entirely understandable reason for the delay to cross in the post. Ashamed, Adam is nevertheless determined to learn from the experience: patience is a virtue.

And now we reach the heart of the matter. Bill is intelligent, articulate when it suits him, but not emotionally available. He’d be seeing Adam for some time, seemingly making real progress, until Bill simply stopped attending sessions.

Adam finds that he cannot just let this rest. He feels compelled to seek Bill out, with consequences for them both.

Adam is a skilled practitioner – undoubtedly. Yet, do these glimpses into his past and present hint at mildly troubling personality traits? There’s a hint of dishonesty, obsession, neurosis and cruelty.

At the same time, Bill has previously been both imprisoned and sectioned.

Are they safe?

The myriad characters – and especially the complex Adam – are skilfully portrayed by Michael Reid in Safety. Reid is a natural and charismatic storyteller, finding moments of humour to punctuate some difficult events. He narrates these engagingly with perfectly judge pace, thanks to the skilled direction of Chloe Champken.

At the heart of Safety is an unsettling study of power, obsession, boundaries, labels, honesty, and the masks we wear. By the end, that comfy chair seems light years away….

Underbelly Bristo Square, until 30^th August.