It is always exciting to see a new play, so I jumped at the chance to watch the premiere of Aberystwyth writer Lucy Gough’s new show, ‘The Wild Tenant’.

The creative team behind it turned Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s Theatr y Werin into an intimate space, with the audience sitting on the stage around the claustrophobic room the play is set in.

Loosely inspired by Anne Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Lucy’s play explores the complexity of a relationship overwhelmed by someone with addiction.

Just two actors occupied the stage. Jáms Thomas played the part of Hunter, the addict, a soul whose talent and ambition has been lost to years of hard drinking. Bella Merlin played Heledd, his long-suffering partner who tries to stay positive in the oppressive atmosphere Hunter’s drinking places them both under. Unlike Hunter, Heledd is determined to keep her artistic side alive, but her paintings are ridiculed by her increasingly inebriated partner.

Stuck in the house in a snow storm, the moods of the pair rise and fall throughout the night. It is difficult to watch at times, and the play left me feeling sympathy for both characters. I had expected to side with Heledd throughout, but each character’s actions are complex, and Lucy brilliantly illustrates both sides of this toxic relationship, making it hard to side with either.

Lucy and Angharad Lee, who both directed the piece, created an intimate and claustrophobic atmosphere for the audience, befitting the themes of the play and the physical snow storm that traps Hunter and Heledd in their home.

The set, costume, sound, lighting and movement for the piece, provided by Peter Lochery, Llinos Griffiths Gough, Sion Williams, Jacob Gough and Eddie Ladd, all worked well. The music included in the piece was particularly poignant for me.

‘The Wild Tenant’ at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (5-7 September) toured to Newport’s Riverfront Theatre (12 September) and the Depot Studio, Swansea (14 September). It is at Galeri Caernarfon on 25 September at 7.30pm, and the Dance House Cardiff on 27 September at 7pm and 28 September at 12pm.