Although Shake Rag Hollow deals with multiple themes (hidden family horrors, the pressure of small-town life, reputation and reality), it spends much of its running time setting up relationships before abruptly revealing its predictable twist. The final scenes attempt to race through recognitions, renewed regrets and reconciliations, weighty and dramatic moments that are clustered together and fail to fully land.

The slow unwinding of family history is played out from the return of a criminal daughter to her childhood home. She meets her own daughter for the first time before discovering the terrible actions that not only led to her unjust incarceration but defined her corrupted youth. Audio interludes taken from an old video that guide the listener through the local forest locate Shake Rag Hollow geographically, but its three characters place the script firmly in the intimate, domestic drama genre. 

The script itself is, line for line, written with an ear for fluid and naturalistic dialogue: but the structure bunches the revelations too tightly. Performed with an understated assurance, and capturing the tension between public respectability and hidden wickedness, the production is a study in familial deceits and rural horror that suffocates its own dramatic potential. 

Shake Rag Hollow, Assembly Rooms, until 24 August, 2.10pm.