There are two things every review of Caryl Churchill’s 2000 play Far Away must do: describe the opening scene as a ‘masterclass in suspense’; and pick a side in the now 20-year debate about its ending.

Not that this is a criticism. That, in a mere 45 minutes, Churchill’s nightmarish dystopia still manages to challenge and vex audiences is testament to its near-prophetic power. It’s one of the best of Churchill’s oeuvre, a show with the poeticism of Ursula K. Le Guin and the contemporary horrors of Black Mirror tightly packed in one neat theatrical box; a collection of apocalyptic fragments in three-parts propelled by whimsy and dread.

And it begins, simply enough, with a child unable to sleep.

Darcy Sterling-Cox and Alison Whyte in Far Away. Photo © Cameron Grant

It’s the most famous of the show’s three parts: a terrifying two-hander between a young girl who has seen something she shouldn’t have and her guardian, and this arresting new production from Patalog Theatre stages it perfectly.

A girl (Darcy Sterling-Cox) in fluffy bear slippers stands on a white-washed staircase surrounded by piles of towering black matte boxes. Her guardian, Joan (a resplendent...