Dark Vanilla Jungle, Soho Theatre

Philip Ridley’s latest state-of-the-nation drama was essential - if disturbing - viewing at last year’s Edinburgh festival, where it won the coveted Fringe First Award. This is a one-woman show which takes the audience on an deeply personal and unsettling journey, drawing on gang culture, female objectification and Britain’s modern-day sex industry. This is theatre at its most confrontational.

Gemma Whelan, recent star of the HBO series Game of Thrones, gives an extraordinary performance as Andrea, a young girl left behind by her parents and by the state. Abandoned by her family in Croydon, she’s abducted as a sex slave, before losing her baby after a wrecked relationship with an injured soldier.

Dark it might be, but Evening Standard and Critics Circle Award-winner Philip Ridley creates lyrical poetry over a riveting 75 minutes, reuniting with Evening Standard-award nominated director David Mercatali after their sell-out 2011 hit Tender Napalm. Whelan’s experience as a stand-up – she won the Funny Women Variety Award in 2010 – makes her a commanding stage presence, and the intimate setting of the Soho Theatre Upstairs is a perfect match for this intense, fiery performance.