It finally feels like the world is waking up to the epidemic of violence perpetrated by men towards women and girls, but John Donnelly’s new play has come up with a new way of countering this: vampirism! Clearly this is a supernatural ‘what if?’, but it raises some interesting questions and lays bare some unpleasant truths - in society at large, and even in the audience.

The problem is that this is yet another female-centric story that suffers by being told by a man. Parroting clichés about fashioning house keys into a weapon just shows that Donnelly has listened to a news broadcast at some point in the last five years, and any attempt at showing what it’s like for Mia when her partner Joe all but accuses her of being hysterical just makes her seem annoying. It’s a writing issue rather than performance, as the dialogue simply goes nowhere.

This may be a result of the total running time being approximately 100 minutes - including an interval. There are too many strands and not enough time to tie them up; climate change and its effect on the human population is mentioned, but isn’t seen as a problem when decisions are taken to turn more people into vampires - in other words, creating an imbalance in the food chain. It’s also not really clear why Mia’s young son Alfie has a penchant for drawing some rather disturbing pictures, amongst other things.

I can understand why director Blanche McIntyre chose to insert an interval (the playtext suggests that it’s optional), but the shock value of the end of act one wears off pretty quickly and it’s then difficult to pick things back up again in act two. It would be preferable to use those 20 minutes to explore the numerous themes properly.

There are some real zingers and excellent repartee, which make some scenes incredibly entertaining - however, the balance of humour and thriller isn’t always managed well, which may have contributed to the smattering of giggles when a stranger starts masturbating in front of Mia (although I may be being overly generous towards the audience here). For an 80-minute play, there is an awful lot of dead air where nothing happens either on or off stage; again, time that could be better spent.

And, talking of better spent, unless you fall into one of the concessions categories the average ticket price is around the £50 mark, with the cheapest tickets at £35 and premium at £65. Even if the production felt like the finished article, this is still quite hefty for a short play.

Despite her character not always being sympathetically written, Sophie Melville stands out as exhausted mum-of-two Mia, at her wits’ end from the neighbours constantly playing music and her baby neither feeding nor sleeping well. Her frustration at the world feels at once genuine and relatable. Opposite her as Ana, Laura Whitmore is rather wooden and often feels at odds with what she’s saying; her big reveal at the end of act one should be impactful, but it ultimately feels rushed.

There is plenty of ambition in Apex Predator and potential conversations to be had, but unfortunately the play simply lacks bite. 

Apex Predator is at Hampstead Theatre until 26 April

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