A mental moment

A compulsion towards covering curtains with shocking pink pom-poms is hardly grounds for being whisked off to a mental hospital, but Dinah is evidently paranoid that her flagrant abuse of taste will result in just that.

Twitchily jokey, she exudes the scatty respectability of a character from a Victoria Wood sketch, yet the word "demented" keeps slipping into her conversation, and each time it does, her eyes go dark.

Playwright Annie Caulfield has written for Lenny Henry among others, and in her latest script - based on the accounts of women who have been treated for mental disorders in prison - there is an ongoing battle between the comedy writer and the serious dramatist.

A long literary tradition testifies that wit is one of the sharpest tools for examining the hypocrisies surrounding mental illness, but Caulfield's script initially feels clunky and over-cosy - as if she is trying to find too much humorous method in the madness.

Does this make the evening a failure? Surprisingly not, for despite the lack of grittiness, sharply observed performances combine ultimately with chilling insights into the vast history of childhood abuse that propels men and women towards prison.

The two main characters couldn't be more dissimilar: Dinah has a needle-sharp intellect and the personality to be a successful career woman, while Simone is less focused, and becomes confused when confronted by curtain materials in Debenhams - yet both have been abused repeatedly, not only by individuals, but - revealingly - also by the prison system.

The company Clean Break has carved out a strident reputation for working with women caught up in the criminal justice system - and actresses Helen Ayres and Lesley Stone certainly shine a vivid light on to psychologically tortured issues. There are darker details, however, than are portrayed here - and ultimately their absence is keenly felt.

Didn't Die