This intriguing and cleverly devised drama finds the audience sharing the thoughts of two young women trying to escape the crushing hum-drum existence of their lives in a forgotten coastal town.

Sophie (Maureen Lennon) is trapped in a marriage to a possessive and controlling husband. Frightened and repulsed by his increasingly heavy-handed demands for sex, she tries to find solace in the legend of The Arabian Nights. She clings to the tale Scheherazade, the doomed Royal bride, who staves off execution by telling 1,000 stories so com-pelling that she is allowed to live.

While Annie (Charlie Sellers) is lamenting her job in fish-processing and trying to come to terms with the fact that her boyfriend has just woken from a long coma. She should be happy but marriage, mortgage and some very troubling thoughts are making the future look impossi-bly bleak. She wanted so much more.

With their beautifully disturbing monologues emphasised by gently un-derstated music from Tabitha Mortiboy, the three figures sit on a bench contemplating a pool of water.

They quietly describe their regrets, fears and frustrations over existenc-es that threaten to be swamped by a lifetime of submission mundanity and wrong moves.

Written by Lennon and Mortiboy, Bare Skin On Briny Waters was originally developed by Hull-based BellowTheatre for the city’s Heads Up Festival and was also a big hit at least year’s Edinburgh Fringe. No wonder. It’s a compelling story that questions the lot of the downtrod-den and forgotten.