Nothing to be afraid of

On a warm summer's evening in 1999, an earthquake strikes the heart of London.

The epicentre of the tremor is a theatre, where a lavish production of "The Tempest" has just opened.

In the cast are friends and enemies, among them a preening star, a drunken failure, and Martha, a young actress.

In the audience sits her clever sister, Alice. As the shockwaves subside, the veil between the real and the imaginary is lifted, and magical forces of envy, ambition, madness and romance invade the world: Alice and Martha vie for love and precedence on stage; a mesmerist indulges his worthless son; and Leslie Barrington, a washed-up Caliban, dreams of literary revenge.

Behind the scenes, a family tragedy awaits discovery.

The players are, one by one, unmasked. "Nothing To Be Afraid Of" is a tragedy of hope abandoned and innocence betrayed, but it is also an extravagant comic pageant of Shakespearean energy and compassion: an incidental theatrical history, across the twentieth century, of the art of pretence; of patience, trust and loyalty; of folly in youth and old age.