Lucy's is a startling story full of humour, horror and sadness but told with subtlety where much is hinted at as well as laid bare.

There was a lone attempt to applaud Laura Linney's stage entrance for her West End debut in My Name Is Lucy Barton indicating, perhaps, that there was at least one American in the audience.

Laura Linney may have an exceedingly impressive array of awards and nominations to her name but that isn't the way here in London, we want to see what an actor can do first before we show our appreciation.

She plays the Lucy of the title in a solo performance, set in hospital-room where a post-op illness is confounding doctors and prolonging her stay.

Reunion and recollection

Lucy's estranged mother appears at her bedside and the story flits between their conversation and recollections from her past.

She is a writer on the verge of success, living in New York with her husband and two children but was brought up by her impoverished parents in an isolated farming community in Illinois.

It was a tough childhood, a combination of living hand to mouth and her mother's necessity-driven, no-crying style of parenting.

Startling story

There is a loneliness to Lucy, a yearning, and she is aware of it. Her mother is proud and gossipy and Linney slips easily between the two in her portrayal.

Lucy's is a startling story full of humour, horror and sadness but told with subtlety where much is hinted at as well as laid bare.