The Cut

Paul is an ordinary man with a shocking secret. At home, he is a loving husband and father. At work, he administers the cut. In a society sickened by his profession, Paul struggles with his conscience and longs to tell the truth.
(Methuen)

Set at some indeterminate point in the future, situated in an unspecified city and country whose citizens are governed by unexplained rules and harsh divisions, The Cut is a black parable in which all the nightmare buttons are hit early on. Civility masks brutality. An underclass proles around looking stunned as they bring on instruments and serve tea. There's a huge prison population, and a university community that is kept under tight control. At the centre is the not altogether surprising secret of the play: the profession of the main character who, unsuspected (or so he thinks) by his family, slices people up for a living, on behalf of the state.

(Susannah Clapp)

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