Discomfort isn’t top of my list of things to encounter in the theatre, but watching Bunny, Jack Thorne’s blistering monologue on the state of British youth today, it’s impossible not to share the pain at times. His portrayal of the issues teenagers face in contemporary society is certainly compelling and its truths are close to the bone.

Rosie Wyatt takes on the mammoth task of playing 18-year-old Katie, a bright young white girl, who leads us through the streets of Luton.

On the way we meet Abe, her boyfriend, whom she informs is “good looking” and in the next breath “He’s also black. Not that...that... I just never know how to bring that up.”

The ‘that’ in question is life in a multicultural neighbourhood and the problems faced when different people rub up against one another. Their differences are not just to do with race, though this causes considerable tension, but poverty, education and sexism also play a part.

The scene opens on a scorching hot day, Katie and Abe are walking along and a kid on a bike knocks Abe’s ice cream into the road. What starts off as a minor altercation, swiftly spirals out of control and the audience is caught, like a rabbit in the headlights, seeing how the threat of violence can so easily unfold into a life or death situation.

I have seen good things by Watford Palace’s creative associates nabokov before and look forward to many more collaborations. Joe Murphy’s direction in this piece is so masterful it’s virtually undetactable.

Video designer Ian William Galloway and illustrator Jenny Turner’s set moves effortlessly along with the dialogue. Ian animates Jenny’s stark black and white illustrations of a bleak ‘new town’ housing estate, which work magnificently as a backdrop to the exciteable, wonderful, warm and naive Katie. Her flesh, her bright eyes and the colours of her clothes speak to us of the promise of young life. The pointlessness of violence has never been so eloquently laid out for us to see.

Jack Thorne’s genius is to let us follow her on a highly uncomfortable journey that leaves us all on the brink. Hopefully it’ll make us stop long enough not to bowl on over the edge.

Melanie Dakin