Cooking up an incest storm

Dominic Cook has read a lot of plays; I wouldn't like to think how many, but he spent a year as an associate director sifting his way through intercontinental oceans of text before he even got to direct his first play

"Desensitisation is something we really see in this generation," he explains, earnestly. "It's a kind of numbing feeling. There is something about this moment historically where our society has evolved to a place that we are not genetically evolved to be in yet; we have drives we don't need any more." He pauses slightly, as if uncomfortable about what he is about to say: "And many people haven't found a way to channel these drives, er, creatively."

It is not hard to understand why there was a slight wince offered with that last statement. Dominic Cook is, by his own argument, a poster perfect example of Mr Evolution; the man who channels his drives more creatively than all others. A man who, towards the end of a boredom-induced drinking bout at Warwick University, does not go out to urinate on expensive automobiles but, instead, plans to set up a theatre company with his friends.

He is also a man who put his first decent pay packet, on leaving university, into setting up another theatre company based in London. A man who describes his apprenticeship with the RSC as "bliss" and admits that he has a certain talent for filling out VAT returns. A man who, nevertheless, is directing a play about incestuous teenage arsonists with a sideline in patricide.

Given that his last show was the stunning Arabian Nights at the Young Vic, it is hard not to feel that he is becoming somewhat mesmerised by the spirit of his workplace. After all, he has gone from one theatrical paradigm - the Young Vic Christmas show - to another: the Royal Court sex, drugs and violence show.

After a little defensive bluster, he concedes that he is not shying away from the dominant sensibility of the institution. "The work we do here is about finding new voices and staging work that is challenging, so, yes, I suppose this is a Royal Court show. But it is pure coincidence that the two shows we did were German and about violence; they just seemed to be the best plays. It really is a question of the plays we respond to personally; we don't look for plays about violence and dissatisfaction, we are just responding to what is out there."

If there is any through line between Arabian Nights and Dominic Cook's more recent work, it lies in the intimate relationship he creates between the action and the audience. "I am always interested in writing that makes the relationship with the audience quite complicated, that allows for many shades of grey," he explains, "and we have really tried to integrate the action of the play into the audience, so that by the time the catastrophic things happen you are already inside the family."

As a result, if the preoccupations of Fireface seem familiar, the presentation is anything but: this is an 80-minute show with more than 90 scenes and, crucially, however unpalatable the action on stage may appear, no easy explanation is ever provided for it.

"The author [Marius von Mayenburg] does not give glib sociological reasons for the children's behaviour, which makes it very troubling for the audience. Fireface is about social culture in one way, because it is about children of liberal parents," enthuses Cook. "The '68 generation is much more of a feature in Europe; nudity at the beach and discussion of sexual culture is very much part of German culture now; the play is about the lack of boundaries in liberal families but there is still the question of where violence comes from."

One might also say that if there is any through line between Cook himself and the themes of the play, it is this appreciation of boundaries and the need for something to lash out against, for he is the only young director I have ever encountered who relishes the British attitude to performing arts. "People are always kicking against theatre here, which," he says, grinning, "I think is probably quite good, because you always have to kick out back and defend what you are doing."

Nice to feel that charming Mr Evolution is still a rebel, for all that.

Fireface is at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, until 17 June. Box office: 020 7565 5000.