Pornography

What does an audience expect from a piece of theatre about a terrorist atrocity? To be entertained? To be titillated? To gain insight or understanding?

This play by Simon Stephens, which received its world premiere in Germany in 2007, is set in London in July 2005, the month when capital was named hosted city of the 2012 Olympics and then, just days later, was rocked by the bombings of three tube trains and a bus by British terrorists.

Monologues and dialogues involving eight characters, including one suicide bomber, illustrated what could be described as people going about their everyday lives - if everyday lives involved stalking, career suicide, incest and high-stakes sexual power play.

How seven of them will be affected by the bombings is for us to guess at - will they be victims? Will they be bereaved? Uniformly strong, nuanced performances draw the audience in to each fragment offering new clues about the characters and their histories.

Billy Seymour, however, is utterly captivating as mouthy, over-confident schoolboy Jason, almost to the extent that the balance of the piece is thrown off. He conveys menace and disillusionment while the bomber remains enigmatic, focused on details rather than motives.

Frequent flickers of overhead cables serves as reminders of the context of the mini-dramas, each of which seems insignificant compared to the events that are to come. Perhaps that's why it's called Pornography.

Arguably the most moving part of Sean Holmes's production comes at the very end, when some of the audience have already begun rushing out to catch their next show. A section headed 'One' in the script (which the writer has stated may be performed in any order) bears short descriptions of the 52 victims of the 7/7 attacks.

There's no mention of stalking, incest or affairs, but each brief set of words captures an aspect of a human being with a history, a family and aspirations. It is these factual descriptions, projected rather than spoken, that linger in the mind. In the end, the truth is more affecting than fiction.