LESS is more in this troubling tale of family life in the Fens.
Clocking in at just over 60 minutes, the first revival of Nick Ward's award-winning play is a welcome change from the modern trend for three-hour-plus blockbusters.
It opens with George Sutton, who has spent his life tending waterlogged Fenlands, lying face down on the floor of what turns out to be his local church.
Standing over him are his wife Pam and teenage daughter Linda, taking it in turns to quote a family saying which grows more menacing with every repetition.
"That were frightening," concludes Pam. "Still, I told it to Linda when she was little."
It soon transpires that George has been sacked by local landowner John Grey, sparking a bout of soul-searching - especially after his former employer takes his wife on as a cleaner.
But the play is more than a tragedy about the effects of unemployment on a struggling family and it's soon clear the problems run much deeper.
At its centre is the stormy relationship between Michael Brogan, as the emotionally-stunted George, and Amy Loughton, who plays his disaffected teenage daughter Linda.
There is a strange chemistry between the pair, both of whom are excellent, and the play is at its best when they are on stage together.
At times it's unclear which one's meant to be the teenager. George seems as uncomfortable in his own lumbering body as any schoolboy struggling with the onset of acne and a breaking voice, while Linda often speaks with a chilling directness which makes her seem old before her time.
Described by its writer as a "tragedy in a minor key", Apart From George is perfectly suited to the confines of the Finborough - a tiny, 40-odd seat theatre above a pub.
The characters are trapped in a circle of violence and longing in what John Grey describes as a 'nothing land which God would soon return to nought'. The bare stage, haunting violin score and sparse lyricism of the script amplify the mood of captivity.
For a play exploring themes of alcoholism, domestic abuse and unemployment, this should be a much more depressing affair than it turns out to be.
That's largely thanks to Michael Irving's turn as the comically self-doubting vicar, Arthur Loveless, (catchphrase "I'm a pretty useless fellow").
Some of the exchanges between him and George are almost reminiscent of The Fast Show's Ted and Ralph. When the vicar apologises for talking too much and promises not to say another word, George replies bluntly "I want you to - no point otherwise".
Unfortunately, the play's brevity is also its main downfall, leaving little time for the slightly sinister John Grey (also played by Irving) or Pam (Nichola Harrison) to be developed.
But perhaps that's expecting too much in the time it takes the Big Brother contestants to break wind a few times, eat breakfast and argue over who's going to wash up. [25a0] Apart From George is at the Finborough Theatre until June 29, Sundays and Mondays only. For tickets, costing £13 (£9 concessions), visit www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk or call 0844 847 1652.
