To grab an audience and hold them spellbound for two and a half hours in our world of short soundbites and glanced memes is a rare thing.

Never Let Me Go, at Kingston’s Rose, does just that, thanks to a sharp script (Suzanne Heathcote), pacy direction (Chris Haydon) and a whirl of outstanding performances, notably from the three young principals: Nell Barlow as Kathy (above), Matilda Bailes as Ruth and Angus Imrie as Tommy.

The world premiere of this adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s unsettling novel (it runs at the Rose until October 12 before touring) has been three years in development; time well spent focusing acting intensity and choreographed scene changes into a seamless show.

Angus Imrie

Even a half-time interval doesn’t disrupt the tension as we return from our caramel ice creams to learn the fate of Ishiguro’s characters, drawn from an underclass, raised purely as organ donors in a dystopian world.

How will they – and therefore how might we – cope with impending death once our usefulness is exhausted?

Ishiguro (and adaptor Heathcote) explore the intertwined relationships between the donors, who are bred to meekly accept their lot and therefore never contemplate escape from Hailsham, their secure boarding school.

That steers us towards questioning our own lives, while also confronting the issue of the continuing international ‘trade’ in organ donation.

The terrible truth of the school’s real purpose unfolds gradually as we watch the characters cling to the unbearable promise of false hope as they glimpse a better alternative world.

Special mention for Tom Piper’s set and costume design, Joshua Carr’s lighting, Carolyn Downing’s sound and the slick stage movement choreographed by Ayse Tashkiran.

Matilda Bailes

This is magnificent theatre, the more so because two of the cast are making professional stages debuts. One, Amelie Abbott, cut her teeth in the ranks of the Rose youth theatre, performing as a child in the Christmas shows.

Barlow, Bailes & Imrie might sound like a modest firm of Surbiton solicitors, but it is this trio of utterly persuasive actors who drive the drama to a level that grips those fortunate enough to see it. Join that lucky group if you can.

Tickets from £15 via the box office, 020 8174 0090 or rosetheatre.org