ACLAUSTROPHOBIC, windowless office; files stacked everywhere; a room in chaos.

The Blue Boy begins in darkness. As the lights turn on, we see a puckish teenage boy sitting cross-legged on top of one of the filing cabinets.

A man, some anonymous contemporary social manager, is working late into the night; he’s stressed; drinking scotch; he can’t see the boy.

Headache-inducing music rises until it crashes into blackness.

When the lights return, the boy – an excellently uneasy performance from Jack McMillan – is standing politely in front of Mr Reagan – a suitably stressed Alex Elliott.

He wants to stay; it’s cold sleeping in street doorways.

Slowly, the boy gets under Mr Reagan’s skin and he realises that the boy knows him and this isn’t just a random visit.

Writer Margaret Wilkinson, uses the dark tones of paranoia mixed with real contemporary social issues to deal with the human conditions of guilt, responsibility and blame.

On one level, this story is simple, the boy wants revenge for his dead friend; his anguish is real. Reagan is trapped among cutbacks, memos, reports, protection orders and our national obsession of getting care in the community right.

I enjoyed the slow dance of psychological interaction between the two, and looked forward to the unravelling reveal at the end; but it never came.

I feel deceived, cheated of truth. Was the boy real? Was the man real? Did I just watch a ghost story? A plausibility alert rang in my ears all the way home. Perhaps the boy was just a figment of Reagan’s imagination, an enigma.

I wanted more from the end, an explanation. But perhaps this was the author’s intention.

  • Until Saturday. Call 0191- 230-5151 or go to northernstage.co.uk. Tuesday at Durham Town Hall. 0191- 332-4041 and galadurham.co.uk. November 3 and 4, Dolphin Centre, Darlington. 01325-486555 and darlingtonarts.co.uk.

November 5 and 6, Customs House, South Shields. 0191- 454-1234.