Finely tuned verdict on law, language and marital bliss

CONSENT National Theatre (Dorfman), SE1

NINA RAINE’S fierce new play sees her back on familiar turf — exposing the sourness and subtleties of dysfunctional relationships. But it’s also a probing look at the justice system, its impersonal procedures and sometimes tenuous connection with truth.

The suavely imposing Ben Chaplin is Ed, a strong-willed advocate married to Anna Maxwell Martin’s Kitty. Initially their relationship looks picturesque, yet cracks soon appear. The catalyst is Pip Carter’s Tim, another lawyer. Kitty has been hoping to set him up with one of her friends — matchmaking that has shattering consequences.

Ed and Tim are caught up in a case involving Heather Craney’s Gayle, who says she was raped in the aftermath of her sister’s funeral. Her entirely natural failure to understand the conventions of the legal system jeopardises her case — something Ed exploits without a flicker of empathy.

The characters, who seem to live on a diet of white wine and finicky arguments, are hard to like. At times their smug conversation makes it tempting to shout “middle-class problems”. But director Roger Michell draws sharply defined performances from a cast of seven. The confrontations between Ed and Tim have a heady intensity, Maxwell Martin perfectly captures Kitty’s irritatingly fidgety manner, and Adam James savours some of the best lines as Ed’s hapless colleague Jake.

Besides its astute observation of the balancing acts involved in marriage, there’s plenty of finely tuned comedy. Yet more than anything Raine is interested in language, which lies at the heart of every legal case and proves so worryingly slippery.

Until May 17 (020 7452 3000, nationaltheatre.org.uk)