By Simon Tavener

Firstly, this is the must-see play of the week - it is intelligent, sensitive, moving and extremely well acted. Need I say more? I probably ought.

Kiss of the Spiderwoman started life as an incredible book and has been presented in many forms - both on screen and on stage. This adaptation focuses the audiences attention very directly on the delicately shifting relationship between Molina (a gay window dresser) and Valentin (a political dissident). It takes enormous skill and effort on the part of the actors to tackle a two-handed play - Tai Shan Ling and Harry Lloyd were both very much on top of their form for the entire evening.

Tai Shan Ling captured the precise nature of Molina. He had a very controlled physicality that never descended into camp stereotype. There was a wry smile to many of his lines - revelling in the character yet still repulsed by the situation he was forced to confront. He was sensitive in all he did on stage - creating a living, breathing man who found refuge in a fantasy world. Once he allowed his fantasy to merge with his reality, he found true release - a truly touching performance.

Harry Lloyd was intense, involving and passionate in his portrayal. My reading of the character of Valentin is more of a fighter, more of the street. Lloyd gave a more polished view of the person - this worked very much within the production. One could see the pain on his face and the slow realisation that he, too, could find an escape route through tackling the boundary between idealism and reality.

Both actors were presented in a simple yet effective set - scaffolding and beds were all that was needed to create the claustrophic cell. The lighting blended the natural with the theatrical in exactly the right balance.

This is the sort of drama to which all students (and a number of professionals) should aspire. I applaud them for their hard work and obvious talent - clearly they have a future.