The Mercy Seat at silo theatre

It's safe to say that The Mercy Seat is not a first date kind of play. After all, it was written by Neil LaBute who is well known for exposing the dark, self-serving and brutal parts of human nature - the thoughts and feelings you want to keep from that date you're trying to impress.

The Mercy Seat is a falling-out-of-love story set in New York the day after two planes flew into the World Trade Center and created the phenomenon that Americans simply call 9/11.

Abby Prescott is a 40-something corporate ball-breaker who has been having an affair with Ben Harcourt, her much younger and married subordinate.

They were having sex when they should have been at work and now Ben is presumed dead.

He thinks the crisis offers them the perfect opportunity to run away and start a new life together.

The play follows their arguments as they try to work out the right thing to do. Their different views on morality show up the huge holes in their relationship and spark a brutal battle of the sexes.

Outside, ash from the terror attacks keeps falling, and inside Ben's cellphone rings incessantly, creating the feeling that it's not just the city but Abby and Ben who are under siege.

Their ending might be unpleasant and inevitable but you can't take your eyes off their death battle and there are even some grim laughs along the way.

Alison Bruce is excellent as Abby, giving a complex and textured performance as a strong but weak woman who still can't quite believe she fell for the wrong man.

Bruce plays the whole woman with all her sexy/neurotic, delusional/perceptive, weak/strong contradictions.

Abby is no angel but somehow she's not quite as contemptible as her weak lover, Ben. In this role Craig Hall has a hard row to hoe but somehow finds a way to present Ben's better characteristics and, like Bruce, gives a realistic performance of a complete person.

Director Rachel House highlights the emotional chilliness of the two lovers by keeping plenty of space between Abby and Ben, giving actors Bruce and Hall plenty of room to show off their considerable talents.

The battleground for the lovers is a lavishly designed New York loft.

The silo is well known for the imaginative and stylistic use of set and lighting design in many of its productions.

In The Mercy Seat, the design takes a more naturalistic approach that seems to up the ante in terms of production values. Production designer Sean Coyle has created a wonderful New York loft utterly believable as Abby's hideaway.

Neil LaBute may expose the ugly side of people but in an unusual way the ideas that he explores are beautiful and compelling.

He knows that we can't take our eyes off a physical or emotional crash even though we want to. And in this silo show his ideas pop and burst in a production that is world-class.

What: The Mercy Seat
Where: silo theatre
When: Until August 13