THEATRE: S-27

Humans reduced to numbers, ideals reduced to bitter realities. This earnest staging of Sarah Grochala’s prizewinning play sets up in stark and simple relief the choices people make when it’s their skin or that of their loved one on the line. Although the story is based on a prison camp in Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot, it has been stripped back and injected with some Ockerisms so it feels like it could be a future outback Australia. May (Sarah Snook), a state-trained photographer, is entrusted with the job of recording the faces of those who are about to go through ‘that door’ – and judging from their behaviour with her, what greets them on the other side is not to be desired. A prim and preening mother tries to fob off her baby, a grunting bloke tries for one last go, a young boy whimpers and says nothing. Increasingly May becomes unsure of her trusted regime, especially when she is confronted not only by her cousin but her lover. Clocking in at a little over an hour, this is by no means an in-depth or particularly nuanced study of morality and mob-mentality. But it is clever enough, and well-executed enough to satisfy.

Until Apr 10, Griffin SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross, $23-30, 8002 4772 or griffintheatre.com.au