Samuel Edward-Cook in Manhunt [Manuel Harlan]

STYLISHLY staged by writer-director Robert Icke, Manhunt is a gruelling 90-minute exploration of toxic masculinity.

Before the curtain rises, Samuel Edward-Cook prowls around the stage like a caged animal.

On July 1, 2010, Raoul Moat (Edward-Cook) was released from Durham Prison. He went to the home of Samantha Stobbart (Sally Messham), his former girlfriend, murdered her boyfriend and left her fighting for her life. Moat then shot PC David Rathband in the face, blinding him.

He went on the run, sparking the biggest manhunt in UK history. In Icke’s drama, Moat blames his mother and a traumatic childhood for his paranoia, claims his cries for psychological help had been ignored and that the police had relentlessly persecuted him.

Icke recreates Moat’s rampage as well as imagining several surreal encounters with members of the law court, while he’s on the run, and a conversation with Paul Gascoigne (Trevor Fox) in the last hours of Moat’s life. Gazza had turned up at the standoff between Moat and the police in Rothbury, Northumberland, declaring he could persuade the fugitive to surrender. He was sent away.

Edward-Cook gives a full-throttle performance as a man pumped up on steroids who cannot contain his anger, but one can’t help questioning why Moat, his blatant misogyny and narcissism, is being given stage time.

There’s nothing very nuanced about him as a protagonist and little tonal light and shade in Icke’s slick production.

There are, however, some brilliant moments. The long blackout during which Rathband talks about his blinding and the reasons for taking his own life is particularly powerful.

Just as Moat divided society – he was celebrated on Facebook as a “legend” – I suspect this visceral production will similarly divide audiences.

Not for the fainthearted.

Until May 3
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