Written and Directed by Jamie Armitage

How do you think you’d react to a police interrogation?

Crack? Crumble? Or do you think you’d keep up that cool bravado in the face of something altogether more serious – as the noose begins to tighten…

Joanna has been missing for 68 hours. After 72, the possibility that she will ever be found become too grave to consider. This is DCI Ruth Palmer’s final chance to offer peace to the family and hopefully save Joanna’s life: it’s also their biggest gamble. Because her chief suspect Cameron is here by choice, and there’s little to no evidence that it was him. But Ruth has a hunch.

Though a cast of three, An Interrogation is relative to a two-hander, stripped back and reliant chiefly on Bethan Cullinane and Jamie Ballard’s performances with the tight script, aided with a few additional pieces of stage tech to enhance the tension and offer audiences small snippets into the psyche of the characters. Over the course of an hour, real-time is stretched to accommodate the detective’s hunt for Joanna, audiences are transfixed by the drama unfolding and the elaborate game of chess where we’re never entirely sure who holds all the pieces.

Overhead cameras, paired with some beneath the interview table enable writer Jamie Armitage’s direction to widen the scope beyond the superficial and facial expression. Audiences can see stressed hands, fidgets and tight grips as either side gains or loses ground in this match of wits. Effectively, they’re used just enough to offer insight, withheld from the more crucial moments to ensure the focus is on the performers and the script, rather than gimmickry.

Steady, the pacing of An Interrogation enables Cullinane and Ballard plenty of time to round out their roles, even John Macneill’s less prominent performance as Ruth’s superior, John, who offers additional moments of humour, realism, and even a touch of a twist and pang of the reality of Police work. Terrifically captured, the nuances of the roles switch as tactics are thrown out the window and desperations emerge, leading to a tightly orchestrated and tense production which still emanates snippets of humour and everyday life.

The production only loses its otherwise firm footing in its fixtures of resolution: where its running time could easily benefit from an additional ten or so minutes, fully enabling the more than capable performances the opportunity to tie out their roles as effectively as they set them up. But the degree of natural character creation Cullinane and Ballard achieve is a masterclass in becoming a character, holding suspense like a breath in working with the excellent source material and bringing Armitage’s words and scenarios into being.