Review: That Face ****

Yet, perhaps masochistically, an audience will enjoy this production of That Face precisely because of the deep discomfort it will cause.

Polly Stenham's spectacular debut play, produced in 2007 when she was only 20, is one of the most hyped pieces of drama of modern times.

Here it receives its regional premiere, thanks to the determination of Sheffield's artistic director to bring the best drama to the provinces.

Stenham's play shows a class that is not oft written about in modern drama – these characters rarely exist outside of a Noel Coward play. Stenham's achievement is in taking what is ostensibly a play about "the hardships families endure no matter how wealthy they are" and turning it into a Greek tragedy.

Martha drinks. A lot. Her son, Henry, has dropped out of school to become her full-time carer and her daughter, Mia, could be soon kicked out of boarding school for slipping her mother's prescription drugs to a fellow student in a cruel initiation prank that looks suspiciously like torture.

The Oedipal overtones of the relationship between Henry and mummy sail desperately close to unwatchable and Richard Wilson's production, staged in the claustrophobic atmosphere of Sheffield Studio stares you in the eye and never flinches.

By the time estranged daddy Hugh comes home from Hong Kong to save

the day, you will be fighting the urge to shout at him to run from this car crash, yet you will also find you're unable to tear your eyes

from the wreckage of this family.

Blistering performances, particularly from Frances Barber as Martha and Leila Mimmack as Mia, make this compelling theatre.

To July 24.