"Kiss my fist." When a play opens with such a starkly violent sexual image, any audience knows they�re in for a tough ride. And when that play is by Nobel Prize-winning dramatist Harold Pinter they also know that appearances can be deceptive, and nothing is quite what it seems.

Ashes to Ashes performed last week by thinktanktheatre at Methvens Bookshop in Worthing is a masterly study of communication meltdown. It raises many questions about power, brutality, loss, terror and delusion � without necessarily giving us the answers we�re hoping for.

A man and a woman are holding a conversation in a room. But who are they, and what exactly are they discussing? At the outset we cannot be sure of their relationship � is he her husband or lover, perhaps her psychiatrist, or even her interrogator? But as we are drawn deeper into the intricacies of Pinter�s hypnotic dialogue, we discover the breakdown of a relationship, where appalling images of the Holocaust float in and out of the woman�s tenuous grasp of reality, and the man tries desperately to reach into her world of shadows.

It�s a technically demanding piece for actors, and Jane Huxley and Saul Ware tackle it with a high level of skill. As Devlin, Saul gives an intelligent, rational performance with exactly the right weight given to every beat. Jane plays Rebecca with heartbreaking finesse. Seated throughout, her eyes tell the story in a way that is almost more shocking than her words.

As with all Pinter�s work, the really important issues lie in what is not said. Director Katherine Mustafa making her debut with this production seems to understand this perfectly, with every pause timed to the millisecond.

Ashes to Ashes may be only forty minutes long, but it packs a powerful punch. And thinktanktheatre�s excellent notion of a post-performance discussion showed that in good theatre � as in life - there are always more questions than answers.