Joe Pitts and Abigail Thorn in Blink [Charlie Flint Photography]

BRUNTWOOD Prize winner Phil Porter’s 2012 play Blink is a rom-com with a difference, probing voyeurism, parasocial attachment and stalking.

Jonah (Joe Pitts), raised on a farm, arrives in London after his mother dies of pancreatic cancer, having buried her savings in a suitcase with instructions on where to find it. He rents the ground-floor east London flat owned by Sophie (Abigail Thorn).

Sophie’s father has also recently died of the same cancer, leaving her the house he owned. This is timely, as she loses her job after nursing him through his final illness.

Both characters are grieving and adrift. When Jonah receives a baby monitor in the post that live-streams Sophie’s sitting room, he begins observing her daily routines.

She, in turn, notices him feeding the fox in their shared garden. Porter hints at a society more comfortable watching than engaging with one another.

Once Jonah realises she lives directly above him, he starts following her and witnesses her being seriously injured in a traffic accident. From that moment, the parameters of their relationship shift.

Blink toys with our sympathies. We’re queasy at Jonah’s stalking of Sophie, yet can’t help feeling compassion for his crippling shyness and social awkwardness.

At the same time, we recognise that Sophie has enabled and encouraged this uneasy bond, paralysed by her own fear of intimacy.

Can two lonely individuals build something meaningful from such an odd, imbalanced beginning?

Porter keeps us guessing until the final moments. Spirited performances and Simon Paris’s assured production are elevated by Matt Powell’s clever video design.

Until March 22
kingsheadtheatre.com/