Our first glimpses of the principal cast in The Red Barn is through square or oblong framing which shrink or widen to reveal more or less in a style that is reminiscent of the opening credits of a 60s or 70s TV series or film.

It is 1969 Connecticut, a snow storm is raging and two couples on their way home from a party - Ingrid and Donald (Hope Davis and Mark Strong) and Mona and Ray (Elizabeth Debicki and Nigel Whitmey) - have had to abandon their car and head on foot in the blizzard to Ingrid and Donald's home. Not all of them make it there safely.

The narrative jumps back and forth between the party and the events following the storm. There is a tension from the outset and not just because of the dangers of the storm. David Hare's script tells you only so much, everything else is in the body language and the pauses. This is a play that is brimming with pregnant pauses. It is a master class of understated performance. During the pitch darkness of scene changes there are phone calls, stripped of visual clues it becomes all about the tone and delivery.