John Fowles’ novel, The Collector, created the mesmerically claustrophobic world of an obsessed mind – that of the sexually frustrated collector of butterflies and the innocent girl who becomes his victim when he kidnaps and imprisons her in a priest’s chapel in the cellar of a lonely country house. David Parker’s stage adaptation, at the Theatre on the Green, is a compact and splendidly acted version, directed by Geoff Stanfield, whose set really transports us to that dank oppressive cellar.The relationship between Miranda, the victim, and Clegg, the kidnapper, develops convincingly as she takes over the moral ascendancy. Recent kidnappings on a national and international scale seem to bear out that this is just the kind of love-hate relationship likely to grow between oppressor and oppressed when confined to close quarters.

Richard Radcliffe, while in no way as physically repulsive as Clegg in the book, subdues his natural good looks by a mental approach that brings out the despicable yet pathetic character of the boy. This makes it completely feasible that the girl would resort to physical seduction to help him resolve his sexual hang-ups, as much as to resolve her desperate boredom. A kind of love is inherent in the moving final scenes, and Tricia Hawkins is exactly right in her interpretation of the strangely ambivalent Miranda – not an easy part by any means.

There are production flaws – notably resorting to a film screen to show the actual abduction – this jars and could be resolved by expanding a few lines of explanatory dialogue spoke by Clegg to his teddy bear, Edward, the most endearing character in the play. The musical background would be more effective if it was clearly recorded, but there is nothing that could  not be put right in this gripping and unsettling thriller.