It’s a play of two halves, this one: a competent but rather uninspiring beginning, yielding to a far more creative and genuinely thought-provoking conclusion.  In a sense though, that mirrors the life of central character Nathan, an author of second-rate spy thrillers whose career is reborn with the publication of a Booker-winning magnum opus.  We find Nathan now in a TV studio, basking in the critical adulation he’s learned to crave.  But what was the price of his renaissance?

Nathan’s back-story emerges from a plodding opening segment, which uses a cosy interview as the thinnest of disguises for a massive lump of exposition.  As time goes on, though, the discussion turns more hostile, and the production as a whole begins to hit its stride.  Switching into and out of flashbacks, we discover that the public doesn’t know the whole truth about Nathan’s career – and there are a few harsh truths about his own talents which he’s been hiding even from himself.

The four-member cast all perform well.  Sean Chriscole is convincing as Nathan, portraying just the right mix of arrogance and insecurity – though his inevitable fall might be all the more affecting if we’d had the chance to like him a little more.  But the top honours have to go to Dean Brammall, playing Nathan’s young lover.  Perhaps the most rounded of all the characters, Brammall makes him wordly-wise but somehow insecure, the perfect counterpoint to the self-possessed author.

Devised by the cast, the script stays commendably focussed on its central premise: the pressure to replicate past success, and the lengths to which the search for approval might drive you.  The strongest passages come just before the end, as Nathan rediscovers what it’s like to be famous, and achieves (at least for a moment) a validation of his life.  But in structuring their work around a straightforward interview, From The Mill Theatre Company might have missed an opportunity or two: the scope for mystery and tension is significantly reduced when events are revealed in near-chronological order.

Overall then, Life’s Witness has plenty of potential, but it needs a little more subtlety – particularly to help break up that heavy-handed opening.  That’s no discredit to the cast though, who execute their roles with confidence and style, particularly during the striking on-the-fly scene changes.  This is a story worth telling, and a company worth watching too.