Love and Other Acts of Violence
Donmar warehouse, London

Smart-talking urban romance, dystopia set in an unnamed repressive state, historical drama – these are ­distinct genres but, in a startling new play, are mixed in unexpected sequence and proportions.

For the first 30 of its 90 minutes, Cordelia Lynn’s Love and Other Acts of Violence feels like a sister piece to Nick Payne’s 2012 tragic romance Constellations (revived earlier this year), which also began at the Donmar.

Two smart young people meet at a party, the female character even, as Payne’s was, a physicist. Modishly given no name, “Her” is initially resistant to “Him”, a left-wing radical university history lecturer and poet. They start a relationship, but history sparks arguments. She (Abigail Weinstock), from a family of Ukrainian immigrants, is explicitly Jewish, telling stories about her grandmother, Baba; he (Tom Mothersdale), of Polish descent, is implicitly Catholic.