Written presciently before the outbreak of Covid, An Instinct by Hugo Timbrell takes place at the onset of a hideous virus spreading across the country. The play is a tense, psychological thriller that spookily captures the anxiety and claustrophobia of people huddling in fear of contagion, and where external danger and internal fear seem to merge. The premise appears straightforward: Tom (Joe Walsham) escorts his ex-boyfriend Max (Conor Dumbrell) to a remote family cabin to escape the encroaching infection. There’s no internet, no phone signal, and no one else around for miles, creating a mood of enforced isolation that quickly becomes unsettling. The silence of the woods is both a refuge and a prison.
Timbrell blends several storytelling techniques to blur the space between reality and fiction as we begin to question what is imagined vs. what is real. The virus itself is a gruesome, zombie-like threat, and the ever-present firewood axe becomes an ominous reminder that violence is near at hand.
Walsham gives Tom a disarming charm that eerily masks a sadistic possibility for coercion, leaving us uncertain whether he is protecting Max or holding him captive in the name of love. Waltham keeps us guessing as to Tom’s motives. Dumbrell’s Max longs for intimacy even with men who may be harming him, and his performance captures the exhausting confusion of where to turn to find true intimacy.
When Charlie (Ben Norris), Max’s current boyfriend, appears—having stalked the couple while camping in his van — the tension intensifies. Norris brings a jittery, raw physicality that mirrors both illness and emotional desperation. His character feels like a ticking bomb thrown into an already unstable environment, but there’s also a desperation for love beneath his aggression.
As the relationships unravel, the play becomes a portrait of a fractured psyche as much as a thriller and Timbrell perpetuates an atmosphere of shifting loyalties and uncertain realities. He seems interested in the ways people cling to each other during crises, sometimes out of love, sometimes out of compulsion, sometimes because familiar pain feels safer than the unknown. Tom and Charlie feel like two sides Max’ internal conflict, and perhaps what we fear in others may mirror what we haven’t faced within ourselves.
The set is unassuming—a cabin interior, sparse and serviceable—and the simple yet effective lighting design conveys a sense of constant uncertainty. The sound of storms, wind, and a crackling fire create a threatening world encroaching on the cabin, and sharp chords of horror-film sound underpin the slasher genre.
In the end, An Instinct works not just because it’s suspenseful, but because it asks questions about why we stay in places that frighten us, and why love can feel indistinguishable from danger when our sense of self is fragile.
Some of the characters’ motivations and plot points could be a bit clearer, but overall, the nuanced writing is both foreboding and thought provoking.  Director, Lucy Foster, brings good pacing and insight to the production’s themes. The play builds on the anxiety that surrounded the Covid crisis and turns it into something more complex, exploring the relationship between fear and our longing for human connection.
An Instinct
By: Hugo Timbrell
Directed by: Lucy Foster
Cast: Conor Dumbrell, Joe Walsham, Ben Norris
Lighting design: Caelan Oram
Sound design: Julian Star
Until: 6 December
Running Time: 90 minutes, no interval
Photo Credit: Craig Fuller