In a mysterious institution, a secret project takes place. Four women are set a bizarre challenge: to improve the national standards of torture. What ingredients can the female psyche add to ‘enhanced interrogation’? Pain or pleasure? Compassion or cruelty? Will the nameless, faceless prisoner in their power find them erotic or neurotic? As time passes, will the women reject their orders to inflict suffering – or will they start to join in the fun?

An Act of Twisting is the new play from Rondo Theatre Director, Ian McGlynn, writer of several previous successes such as Reunion and Presence. Agit-prop for the Friends generation, the play is a devastatingly witty and savagely satirical exploration of the nature of torture, cruelty and what it means to be human. Containing characters we all recognise, An Act of Twisting is funny, shocking, disturbing and tragic – often all at the same time!

Originally written as a one-act play and performed at London’s premier fringe venue, The King’s Head, An Act of Twisting makes its full-length debut at The Rondo, Bath’s premier venue for adventurous and exciting theatre. This production also marks the birth of Provocation: Bath’s newest, freshest and brightest theatre company. With the focus very much on literate, witty and vivid new writing, the company seeks to… well, provoke! Whether that’s laughter, tears, thought or action depends on the play and the audience’s reaction to it. Provoction seeks to examine contemporary social and political issues with a razor sharp sense of humour and a barely controlled simmering rage at the mess we’re in today - all wrapped up in a good night out!