A young man finishes his Burger King Whopper then absent-mindedly masturbates onto a sock. His step-mother performs oral sex on him while he munches on a packet of Rowntree's fruit pastels. A shocking tale of incest and murder, or a cunning opportunity for product placement?

Facetious jokes aside, I really wasn't sure what to make of this play by British writer Sarah Kane. Kane, excoriated by the Daily Mail, championed by Harold Pinter, and dead by her own hand at the age of 29, was notorious for her uncompromisingly brutal plays featuring graphic sex and violence. So be warned - Phaedra's love is classic Kane. Don't take your grandma to see it, unless she is unflustered by representations of of rape and evisceration.

Phaedra's love is a reworking of the ancient Greek tale, famously dramatised by Euripides, of Hippolytus. The bare bones of the story are as follows: Phaedra, wife of Theseus and step-mother of Hippolytus, develops a passion for her step-son. Unable to keep it a secret she confesses her love. Mayhem and misery ensue.

The version of this work by the French neo-classical playwright Racine is one of the summits of world literature. Sarah Kane brings the story kicking and screaming into the late 20th century. Centre stage is Hippolytus - in Euripedes a chaste worshipper of Diana; in Racine an insipid lover and virtuous citizen; here, a depressed and promiscuous prince who sleeps all day, watches endless films, plays on a remote control car and has joyless sex with strangers. A Hippolytus for the MTV generation, brought to life in a commanding performance by Philip Contos.

At times the play seems like a parody of Greek tragedy, spliced with Quentin Tarantino, with its breakneck speed and intensity and gore. There's enough sexual obsession and perversity and anguishing over sin, God and the banality of existence to last a lifetime. Such distillation of suffering into an intense theatrical experience is the essence of classical tragedy - this is the abridged version.

And then there's the sex and violence. Is simulated oral sex (twice), rape and the severing of penises really necessary? In Racine the most physical act is Phaedra sitting down. Perhaps the brutality and permissiveness of our age require a more graphic theatre. Or maybe Kane is remarking on the prurience and aggressiveness of our culture. It's an interesting debate, and if you can stomach this sort of thing, then why not go along and see what you make of it?

This is a certainly a confident and professional production - really, it has to be, given the extreme content, to avoid descending into farce. Valentina Ceschi oozes forbidden, uncontrollable passion as Phaedra, Kate Donald gives a powerful performance as her daughter Strophe, and Matthew Trueman plays the three remaining major parts well. The direction and set-design were particularly imaginative. Copious amounts of rubbish littering the stage, a metaphor for the squalor, misery and waste that characterize Hippolytus's life, set squarely in the context of an empty, consumerist culture. The television that Hippolytus watches in the opening scene is put to various uses as the play unfolds. An interesting, challenging evening, and a good opportunity to sample the work of one of the most controversial dramatists of recent years, but not for the faint of heart. Or granny.

George Tew, 26/5/04