Almost 10

The publicity has this as “a darkly comic monologue” and that's a totally accurate description. It's certainly a monologue, it's very comic and it is as dark as pitch. In fact there were several times when I found myself being brought up sharp by having laughed at something which was actually quite horrendous.

The problem, you see, it that to observe nine-year-old Rachel demonstrating Barbie and Ken having enjoyable rape, only to be interrupted by He-Man, is actually very funny.

And Rachel's descriptions of her visits to a child therapist are wildly enjoyable, the therapist's stares in particular, until you start absorbing the full content of the pictures Rachel draws for her.

But then this nine-year-old and her best (in fact her only) friend Hortense are not nice little girls. What with the very naughty phone calls to people with funny names and their bad behaviour on trains there are clearly some very worrying tendencies. Nor does that take any account of Rachel's behaviour at home, especially to her mother and to the au pair.

Then, just as we seem to be looking at a distant cousin of We Need To Talk About Kevin, something happens. It's a shame that the lady who walked out didn't hang on just a little longer because things change. Truths are brought home in a quietly savage way and 10 is going to be very different from 9.

The girl in front of us, aided purely by two black blocks for squatting, sitting or laying on, was clearly a nine-year-old. Her speech patterns, her body language, the way she twisted her feet, all were exact. And it is Rachel who brings the other characters to life; the actress is as invisible as she is anonymous. I'm sure the audience would have liked to have known who they had just seen creating such a convincing if disturbing world.

Small space. minimal set, one person, superb acting, gripping theatre, pure Fringe.