Alice Birch’s short, searing play – previously performed at Latitude and the Almeida Festival – takes its audience inside the intense friendship that develops between two female prisoners.

Written for Clean Break, the company which sets out to make work which explores the experiences of women in the prison system, it’s a delicate yet raw piece of writing. You can feel the strength of the bond between these two unnamed prisoners, played by Sandra Reid and Estella Daniels, as they circle each other, one is all swagger, the other more withdrawn, contained, but the connection between them is palpable even though they seldom touch.

Birch’s text is incredibly lyrical – it undulates, the heat building between the characters before falling away again. It transports the audience into a verdant and welcoming place, an imagined space where these women can be safe together, before throwing a brutal, bladed detail into the mix, bringing thing violently back to reality.

Both Reid and Daniels are excellent, pacing the floor, making full use of the intimate nature of the performance space, the audience semi-circled around them. Faced with the prospect of separation they begin to break and by the end both women are tear-marked and drained