Be Near Me - Donmar This is London

Ian McDiarmid has not only adapted but also takes the central role in his stage version of Andrew O'Hagan's third novel. A co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland and directed by John Tiffany, it's simply staged on an almost bare set with the cast – the citizens of the unwelcoming fictional Ayrshire town of Dalgarnock – seated upstage as disapproving observers. A rug, a chandelier, a few chairs are all that's usedto conjure up the rectory and coastalbleakness of the parish where fifty something Roman Catholic priest DavidAnderton – half English, half Scottish by birth, but completely English by education– lives.

With his taste for literature and fine wine, he's something of a misfit in this divided community of unemployment and neglect, and takes to spending far too much time in the company of 15 year old tearaway schoolboy Mark (Richard Madden) and his girlfriend Lisa (Helen Mallon). It's a reckless and unlikely friendship destined to lead to trouble.

With her forthright observations, Blythe Duff's ailing housekeeper Mrs Pooleprovides a morally and intellectually challenging foil to McDiarmid's effete, basically decent Father David. But despite the rough, restless, mouthy energy injected by the wayward teenagers, just as with the novel, you'll need patience to reap the rewards of this slow-paced psychological study of a priest who no longer has a calling.