A re-enactment of King Lear which addresses despotic rulers, civil wars and national chaos feels eerily apt after the past two years. But current affairs aside, Tim Crouch has a more specific critique in his midst: the state of theatre itself. Wearing a VR mask, Crouch describes another theatre that is hosting a production of Shakespeare’s tragedy picking out audience members (and the prices of their seats) before chronicling the action onstage. 

That Crouch can conjure such vivid scenes with little more than monologue and a pointed finger is testament to the powers of storytelling. The VR headset, whose image-based medium precludes mental pictures, looks redundant. And yet, for Crouch, theatre is losing out to digital entertainment. We are like soldiers waiting in a jungle long after the war is over, he tells us, fighting for something that has already vanished. 

Crouch makes a cutting rebuttal to insistences that the flagging theatre sector remains the same post-pandemic, but it can get heavy handed. His picture of a future where people marvel that we ever spoke to each other directly feels excessively luddite. The minimalist performance is clever, but not always gripping. In the end, it’s a good intellectual exercise, but doesn’t completely captivate.

Lyceum Theatre, until 28 August, 8.15pm.