The centrepiece of Northern Stage’s Humanity Festival is the UK premiere of a selection of short plays by American writer Will Eno. DAVID WHETSTONE was at the first night

IT’S a big subject, humanity. Just think how many plays you’d need to cover it comprehensively. Drawing on the Bible, the Koran, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, the Domesday Book, all past issues of the Radio Times and any number of accounts of the first and second world wars, you would still only scratch the surface.

Thank goodness, then, for Will Eno, an American playwright who observes humanity through a microscope and distils it into bite-sized chunks.

We get five of them here, performed by three very good actors – John Kirk, Tony Bell and Lucy Ellinson – on a cool, back-lit set that looks a bit Japanese.

For the most part, the actors enter through the screen-like backdrop preceded by their silhouette. Props are kept to a minimum – a couple of chairs or stools and the odd lectern.

It’s like sushi theatre, cool and minimalist.

Rather than roast beef belly laughs, there are titters of recognition interspersed, I have to say, with pauses of expectation or puzzlement.

First up is John Kirk’s portrayal of a sports coach explaining to the merciless media the recently ended disastrous season.

I liked best of all the brief looks of distaste he flashed back at his inquisitors as their flashbulbs went off in his face. But he’s on a hiding to nothing, this guy. Fans don’t make allowances; they want results.

The other pair of actors then face us at opposite ends of the stage, perched on stools. It becomes apparent they are describing themselves, independently of each other, to the camera of some sort of dating agency.