Frustration was my initial feeling, having missed the first 10 minutes because of bad traffic. But, with the aid of the text, I soon cottoned on to the general idea: that there are six basic emotions – anger, fear, joy, sadness, surprise and disgust – governing our behaviour, and that they determine our supposedly rational and moral actions.

The story devised by Gordon and Broks feels like an illustration of a thesis. Stephen, a cognitive therapist, struggles with his suppressed desire for a patient, Anna, a guilt-ridden puppet-maker who invests objects with human feelings. Meanwhile, Stephen’s actor-daughter, Lucy, is ferociously jealous of her friend Anna’s intimacy with her dad, while his autistic son, Mark, channels his own emotional needs into Star Trek fantasies. It is, however, a narrative that, in defiance of the show’s own argument, seems driven by diagrammatic necessity rather than organic impulse.

The best moments are when ideas are expressed visually. At the climax, Mark is given a spaceman-puppet that drifts off through the galaxy towards a Jupiter symbolised by a large red apple held aloft by Stephen.

Beautifully staged by Gordon himself and touchingly performed by James Wilby and Mark Down as father and son, it is a moment of pure joy, reminding us that theatre’s true mission is to embody emotion rather than dissect it.

★★★☆☆

Source: The Guardian / Michael Billington / 15 November 2008