Contractions - TNT

It takes less than an hour for Emma from the sales department to be torn to emotional shreds and then put back together again in Mike Bartlett's chillingly effective two-hander. Originally broadcast on the radio, it transfers admirably to a small space in the Royal Court's own admin area which has been minimally furnished as a modern office. Here, like snooping flies on the wall, the audience (just thirty at a time) watches in increasingly horrified disbelief as the unnamed female manager conducts a sequence of interviews with Anna Madeley's Emma.Initially, she's reminded that her contract stipulates that all office relationships of a sexual or romantic nature must be reported to the company. But with each encounter her privacy is invaded further and further by Julia Davis's manager with her misleadingly dulcet tone and impassive manner. Funny at first, then tragic, this clever satire disturbingly suggests what could happen when the concept of corporate "duty of care" is taken to sadistic extremes and (in Lyndsey Turner's perfectly pitched production) effectively questions just how far, under such Orwellian circumstances, one might be forced go in order to hold on to one's job.
Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, SW1. (020-7565 5000). Until June 14. Tickets £15 (£10 on Monday)