Alys, Always: A superbly disquieting psychological thriller

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When Alys’s family makes contact in an attempt to find closure, Frances is given a tantalising glimpse of a very different world: one of privilege and possibility. As Hytner’s production begins the unremarkable Frances (Joanne Froggatt) witnesses a car overturn on a country road. It’s a pleasure, then, to welcome this script from Lucinda Coxon, anchored by a central performance of power and confidence from Joanne Froggatt, best known as kindly maid Anna in Downton Abbey. So many times I'd come across a cluster of words, a sentence or phrase, and I'd be amazed at her talent for expression. At the same time, there is something bizarre happening: Frances feels more herself when she pretends to be Alys than when she is simply Frances.

As the book moves forward, we see Frances ruthlessly capitalizing on each opportunity that springs from her association with the Kytes. It tells the story of Frances, a lowly sub-editor and general dogsbody on the books desk of a Sunday newspaper.If you enjoyed this then the Booker-winning The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes will undoubtedly appeal to you as well. Great things were expected for this theatre, founded by Nick Hytner and Nick Starr after they departed from the National Theatre, which they had turned into the single most exciting theatrical address in London. She ends up being with the driver, Alys, when she dies, and a few weeks later the family ask to meet Frances so she can tell them about her last moments in person. But Lucinda Coxon's play, based on a novel by Harriet Lane (herself a one-time Observer journalist), doesn't have anything like the layered, bruising psychological insight of All About Eve - and neither does Hytner's show have the directorial flare of Ivo van Hove, either.

He is a founder and former chair of the Association of Sound Designers; and honorary fellow of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Other work includes, as Co-founder and principal cellist of Parallax Orchestra, working in theatre, pop, rock and alternative music. But Hytner’s pace is a bit too steady, and you feel like there should be a big twist coming; as I saw we were minutes away from the end it became clear it would never materialise. Television includes playing Anna in Downton Abbey (nominated three times for Emmy awards), and Liar.

Are her actions motivated by ruthless ambition or is she just doing what anyone might do to help a grieving family? Remarkables REMARKABLES Intriguing, stunning, or otherwise remarkable books These include fine editions, foreign publications that are exceptional for their interest or production, special editions and some first-rate books from very small publishers. Theatre includes Who Cares at the Royal Court; There’s Something About Simmy for Rifco Arts; The House of Biquis Bibi for Tamasha / Hampstead; Weights for Merco Productions; What We Did to Weinstein at the Menier Chocolate Factory; Beasts and Beauties at Bristol Old Vic; Hobson’s Choice at the Young Vic; Beyond the Wall and The Firebird for Midland Arts; The Tempest for 1399; Picture Me for Red Ladder; and Daisy Pulls it Off for People’s Theatre.

The novel has the momentum of a thriller but not at the expense of an economical lyricism - there is a lovely assurance to the writing. What it does, have, however - and makes it consistently watchable - are gripping performances from Joanne Froggatt as the fast-climbing Frances and Robert Glenister as the man she becomes so enamoured with and beholden to. By contrast, Glenister has neither the charisma nor the darkness to be thoroughly convincing, and his exchanges with Froggatt completely lack the spark of attraction. But then life - or fate - takes a turn, and driving home in the fog from her parents' country home she bears sole witness to a fatal car accident. However, underneath, Frances is not resigned or content and is just patiently waiting for the opportunity to change her life to present itself.It was as if the author couldn't make up her mind about the character, so she failed to elicit either our sympathy or our revulsion. Lane is a formidable wordsmith, and the literary world is conjured up in all its delicious, gossipy hierarchy. The dark corridors that enclose the transformation of Frances from a mousy nobody to a driven opportunist form a mysterious and complex labyrinth of the mind. To make this metamorphosis she manipulates her way into the Kyte family, using the young daughter Polly as her key, and very soon this pays off. The scenes in the newspaper office have a particularly lived-in warmth; there’s lovely support from Sylvestra Le Touzel as Frances’s initially chilly boss, who deploys White Company gifts like weapons of war.