Sitting at the end of a long table, Fiona Sheil speaks quietly into a microphone, occasionally sipping on a glass of water, glancing down at her script – or perhaps we should say, her lecture notes. Sheil provides first-hand material by dissecting her own major heartbreak, from reliving the daydreams that provided respite from reality, to lip-synching a song when words don’t suit. Stephen Hughes joins Sheil at the table to animatedly present a paper of Sheil’s ‘condition’ – that is, the common insanity that follows being dumped. Sheil’s madness had been characterised by the relentless sending of emails to her ex, amounting to over fifty.

Samples of these are gleefully read out by Stephen Hughes, as Sheil squirms in her chair beside him – as do many of the audience members, listening with a sort of horrified recognition. Interspersed are recordings of Sheil’s mother, who reminisces about her own loves and losses, acting as a neat counterpoint of age and experience.

This is a quiet play, gently delivered, but with a resonance that does not need bells and whistles to make itself be felt or heard. The script felt somewhat incomplete, however - unfinished or unresolved. There was more to be examined here; the mending of the heart, Sheil’s next loves… Though perhaps I was just experiencing the standard emotions of a break-up.

Star rating: ★★★★