ROY Barraclough gives an outstanding pair of performances in A Different Way Home, Jimmie Chinn's touching play about the divisions that exist within families and the power they have to go on causing hurt.
Leslie is a fussy old bachelor, used to his routine. He is deeply upset by his mother's death but at the same time embarrassed by the depth of his feelings, berating himself as soft for crying both in his story and in the retelling of it.
He gradually spills out the story of her death while periodically going off at tangents to add his grievances about the other things in his life that affect him.
His sister is spot-on when she says that he chose to play the martyr after she took her chance to fly the coop.
Maureen is evidently the stronger character, certainly in terms of personality traits though not by any means writing. She shows us the skeletons in the family closet both metaphorically and (through some excellent staging) literally.
The differences between them are drawn out in half a dozen subtle ways, from Leslie's dislike of travel or indeed anything foreign to Maureen's exasperation with the clocks running at different times.
Yet Barraclough's portrayal of both has so many shared mannerisms and expressions, still convincingly part of the individual character, that these two could not be anything but brother and sister.
The comedy in this poignant production comes mainly in the form of well-observed gossipy asides and the absurd non sequiturs they throw up.
"...Her what's had her leg removed and now can't hear well..." "Well, you don't want to be doing with all that when you've got your moisturiser on.
It's the warmth and the humour running through the play that makes the underlying lack of communication so much more tragic.
The staging, lighting and attention to detail are the icing on the cake that make it something truly special.
A Different Way Home is at the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, until tomorrow (Saturday).