A man is getting ready for work in his small French apartment. The door is ajar and in walks a woman with a suitcase. Seemingly, they have never met before.

What follows is a charming play about relationships, power balances and the question of the mysterious Monsieur Ferrand.

The setting in the Park90 adds to the feeling of intimacy as you watch the relationship being played out before you and Jenny Rainsford is captivating as the charmingly imposing and curious woman. Infuriatingly elusive she hints and suggests without revealing a thing. Is she a woman with a dark past or a naïve one with a powerful imagination?

Gerald Kyd pays the bachelor with his little black book of past conquests; a man used to getting his way with the ladies but somehow missing out on the real thing.

What is most enjoyable about the play is the way the dialogue bounces back and forth between the two characters. Witty and lighthearted the play hints at the deeper issues without ever becoming serious. If you're after sincerity this isn't it, and although allusions are made to the nature of men and women these are never defined enough to have real impact. But as the play darts along, whisking you from one conclusion to another, it might just be the most perfect comic antidote this winter.

Little Black Book was written by modern French author Jean-Claude Carrière and translated by Solvène Tiffou.

Kate Fahy directs. Her directing credits include Oliver Cotton’s Wet Weather Cover at the King’s Head and Arts Theatre. As an actor, her theatre credits include Definitely The Bahamas (Orange Tree Theatre) and The Goat (Almeida/ Apollo Theatre). Her television credits include Poirot, The House of Elliot, The Jury, Trial and Retribution and Death in Paradise; and film credits include Archipelago and The Living Dead (Best Actress award at the Campobasso Film Festival and Best Supporting Actress at the Austin Film Festival in Texas).

Jenny Rainsford's theatre credits include The Seagull (Headlong), No Quarter (Royal Court), Straight (The Crucible/ Bush) and The Importance of Being Earnest (The Rose). Film credits include About Time, Death of a Farmer and Prometheus.

Gerald Kyd's theatre credits include Children of the Sun, The Cherry Orchard and Blood and Gifts (National Theatre), 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), The Real Thing (Watford Palace Theatre), The Years Between (Theatre Royal Northampton), This Much Is True (Theatre 503), The Seagull (RSC), The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic) and Revelations (Hampstead Theatre).

Little Black Book is showing at the Park Theatre until 19th January. Find out more here.