This play is about much more than political questions; it has a lot to do with young manhood and the gaining of independence as well as wisdom. Redmayne moves swiftly from the posture and gestures of a brave and confident young man to an anxious teenager, to a desolate child, and back. His command of rhythm and diction - complicated political stuff and in an American accent, too - is as remarkable as his body language. He has an extraordinarily economical way of looking not just bereft or betrayed but half-blind with emotion, in a way that his understatement makes more touching. It's hard to avoid thinking of Hamlet, and there are some obvious parallels, including a sexually incontinent First Lady mother. The printed edition opens with a truncated quotation from Hamlet: "Be bloody or be nothing." What Hamlet says in full is: "My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth." Both versions are chilling undercurrents in the play's theme. Thoughts, when expressed, are becoming deeds in the contemporary world, and are thus at risk of being controlled. A surprising and outstanding play. It runs until 1 November.