I recently read a glowing review of another play that praised the harmony of the trifecta of acting, writing and direction for creating thrilling theatre. In the case of Foxfinder, now playing until January at the Ambassadors Theatre, this trifecta hits a bum note, with all three aspects, plus jarring design, culminating in a disjointed and rarely compelling production.

A 'paranoia parable' that takes place in a future England blighted by rain, food shortages and oppression, Foxfinder is the story of a farming couple Sam and Judith Covey, who, having not met their government mandated crop quota, are visited by the titular Foxfinder, William Bloor. A fastidious and pious young man, Bloor's job is to root out any conspiracy and discover any trace of the fox - a feared blight and a threat to England's security. Trained to notice any sign of the beast - who's been lifted up as a cause of everything from the death of farm animals to sexual perversion - Bloor walks into Sam and Judith's life with this purpose. Chaos ensues.

Game of Thrones' Iwan Rheon leads as Bloor, a '19 year old' who's the bark of his famous Ramsay Bolton character, but sorely lacks the bite that might have elevated him. Opposite Heida Reed and Paul Nicholls, who do fine, and sometimes shiningly as the Coveys, he works best, but his monologues and soliloquies are often laughable. The dystopian premise is just not deep or menacing enough to elicit her character's reactions, it feels half finished, mostly pointless, and combined with Rachel O'Riordan's lacklustre direction, does the otherwise better-in-other-things actors a disservice.

Surely revived as a foil for the ever looming shadow of Brexit, it just fails to take you in, and like the near constant rain the characters are subjected to, it's a shame to report, that despite a Olivier winning director, and leading man to boot, that Foxfinder is a real washout.