Kate Fleetwood calmly smokes a cigarette from the side of the stage, her back turned to the audience currently filing into the intimate theatre. As the audience quiets down, the motel room telephone rings repeatedly, and her character tells the caller to “fuck off”.

Being in such close proximity to some of television’s most notable talents (Fleetwood, James Norton, Alec Newman, Daisy Lewis and Carl Prekopp) is an experience in itself. The theatre, Found 111, is a temporary venue, run by Emily Dobbs on Charing Cross Road, seating only around 100 people and offering a very different kind of theatre experience to its more established West End counterparts.

Equipped with a stylish bar serving delicious and quirky cocktails, Found 111 is the perfect cosy and comfortable venue to host such an intense and dramatic play.

Bug, by Tracy Letts, follows the story of Agnes White (Fleetwood), a waitress who has found solitude living in a motel room away from her violent ex-con ex-husband (Newman). She finds herself intrigued by and attracted to Peter (Norton), a man who, since serving in the military during the Gulf War, has become incredibly paranoid about the war and government experiments on soldiers and becomes obsessed with other related conspiracy theories. He convinces Agnes that he’s been infested with bugs by the military and so begins their funny, dark and heart-breaking descent into insanity.

Set in the US, the play is performed in its entirety in Agnes’ motel room with five central characters delivering the piece.

This production of Bug is directed beautifully by Simon Evans, who also directed The Dazzle, another production which took place at Found 111. All cast members gave fantastic performances in their respective roles, but special praise must be given to Fleetwood and Norton who encapsulated the audience and delivered an intense and emotive performance, keeping the audience enthralled and completely involved in the play.

Lewis shone as R.C., portraying a funny and sassy character who was the ever-present symbol of logic in a story devoid of it. Newman and Prekopp played convincingly nasty characters, the obvious antagonists in this saga, enthralling the audience in their collective dislike for them.

Afterwards, my friend and I were able to meet James Norton and he was incredibly kind and genuinely interested in speaking to audience members and greeting fans. Bug is a darkly-comedic, daring and intense play in one of London’s most interesting venues.

8/10

“Bug” is running until 14th May. Tickets can be purchased on Found 111’s website: http://found111.co.uk