It takes real imagination to put on a feature-length production that contains one actor, no sets, and no props. Christopher Haydon is blessed with such imagination, and sound and vision, thanks to flawless technical cues, coalesce to form brilliant illuminations. However, none of this would work, were it not for Lucy Ellinson’s powerhouse performance. She plays ‘Pilot’, a confident, semi-androgynous pilot with much pent-up aggression, who is put in charge of a drone with which to kill remotely-selected targets. Her juggling of domestic life and life as a killer – unable to see the blue sky she loves – is what lends the play its poignancy. Themes of surveillance, paranoia and emotional fatigue infuse this very 21st-century play with painful relevance.

Traverse Theatre, until 25 Aug (not 12, 19), various times.
tw rating 5/5 | [Arjun Sajip]