It is hard to summarise director Mark Murphy’s Out Of This World while doing it full justice.

I have never been so deeply gripped, and captivated by what is, on one hand, a heart-warming tale of love, and on the other, a cerebral and, quite frankly, terrifying psychological horror story.

We begin with the initial set, the Oxford Playhouse’s stage transformed into a hospital waiting room with chairs tossed across the stage and what appear to be IV blood bags suspended at different levels .

The whole scene looked like a Damien Hirst art installation.

There was an ominous, clinical, sense of displacement – the set lit only by a single red light at the back of the stage.

There’s an ominous sense of what might occur. Then, there’s a huge bang and a flash of white light, and we are thrown into a multiplicity of jerking movements, flashing lights, sirens, digital projections, and confused dialogue from our protagonist, Ellen – a woman descending into a medically-induced coma.

There was a real sense of fear.

Throughout the play, Ellen would turn to the audience and address us directly, through mind-bending soliloquies.

We are shown the mind of someone in a coma – and become Ellen’s mind in a purgatorial, clinical hell – and join her fight to survive in a show which is part psychological thriller and part heart-rending medical drama.

As much art as drama, Murphy illustrates Ellen’s mental states with beautiful digital projection; the two perfectly synced to reflect Ellen’s internal hell

Incredible aerial choreography, music and terrifying scene changes made for a mind-blowing, stylised piece of physical theatre, which left our hearts pounding and aching.

LOLA LE FEVRE

4/5