An InterrogationSight Lines Entertainment KC Arts CentreJune 4, 8pm

Billed as a psychological thriller, it is far more interesting to read English playwright Jamie Armitage’s police room drama An Interrogation as a study of how gender and class shape power dynamics under duress. A missing woman, an underfunded police department, and a slippery suspect make for a ticking time bomb.

The ante is raised when veteran investigating officer John Culin (Lim Kay Siu) steps back and entrusts full interrogation duties to a young but rising detective Ruth Palmer (Nadya Zaheer), who has a hunch that the charismatic and successful Cameron Andrews (Salif Hardie) is her guy. What on paper looks like a three-hander is in reality a two-hander – Ruth and Cameron facing off in a stark room, while John keeps tabs from behind the one-way mirror.

There is a third man who is exerting pressure on Ruth – from the get go, the audience learns that she has recently called off her engagement although she still dons her ring. When Cameron turns up, he disarms the nervous novice by commenting on her soiled shirt and turning questions on her. Ruth plays nice and acts inexperienced while Cameron turns on the charm in tandem with veiled threats.

The scenario is compelling to follow and the staging sleek, but it is a script that places considerable pressure on the actors to deliver nuanced switches between facade and frankness. Sight Lines’ cat and mouse duo are both sturdy actors, but still bend under the weight of a script that demands much more range from its two leads.

For much of the play’s beginning, director Krish Natarajan is not quite able to tease out the subtle opening moves of the power play between the two. For all her belief that Cameron is the murderer, Ruth never loses her nervous tentativeness and one struggles to locate the source of conviction in her speech or mannerism. Salif, too, handsomely plays the manipulative...