Tight in both its construction and delivery, Megan Barker’s play for the Arches Theatre Company reveals the most atavistic function of humanity as it explores the feelings of mid-American trailer-trash Myrtle for her son, Brandon, who has found God. That function, in a woman who is at the bottom rung of the lowest ladder, is still to fend for her baby, to want him by her and ultimately, to nourish him.

Under Neil Doherty’s direction, the three actresses who play Myrtle - initially in unison - somehow make her less substantial as she stands in an institutional kitchen cooking Brandon a meal of meatballs and lemon pie. Together, Ray Farr’s woolliness, Yvonne Caddell’s whimsical creation and Patricia Kavanagh’s fear, succeed in defocusing Myrtle’s character.

Quite what meal she is making is unclear right up to the final moments of the play as, in the process of making it and with the smell of meatball sauce permeating the theatre, she recalls the bargains she made that lead her there. Barker’s set and script, Doherty’s direction and three stunning performances all guide you through to that final revelation, so that her previously misunderstood rituals and preparations become clear in their full obscenity.