Theater review: Ciphers by Inis Nua

Ciphers are rampant in Inis Nua Theatre Company’s American premiere of Dawn King’s juicy spy thriller, since a cipher is both a person of no apparent importance and a secret code.

In Ciphers, Isa St. Clair plays mousy Justine, seeking work in a British security agency. “You’ll only ever be Clark Kent,” boss Sunita (Felicity Leicht) tells her. Moments later, St. Clair is Justine’s unhinged sister Kerry, investigating Justine’s suspicious death. 

The play continues out of time sequence with suspects aplenty, since Justine pursues an affair with married artist Kai (J. Paul Nicholas) despite his possessive wife (Leicht), while also turning Muslim Kareem (Nicholas) into an informant watching an elusive terrorist. Justine also goes undercover at the Russian Embassy, working for manipulative agent Koplov (John Morrison).

The double casting — Morrison also plays the sisters’ father — keeps the 85-minute play tight and heightens the tension by making us watch carefully for clues about which sister St. Clair is playing and, therefore, what timeline we’re witnessing in every scene. All four actors transform with ease, using different accents and mannerisms to distinguish each character.

Director Tom Reing keeps the action moving briskly through dozens of short scenes, aided by Meghan Jones’ deceptively simple set and Janelle Kaufmann’s rich video designs, which create many London locations with a watercolor style, all delicately lit by Shon Causer.

The mystery seems solved by the play’s eerie ending, though the plot’s subtle permutations lingered in my mind long after, leaving unsettled feelings about our era of constant surveillance and terrorist threats. Ciphers succeeds as a thriller, but is also disturbingly perceptive about modern fears.

Through Oct. 26, $25-$30, Inis Nua at the Off-Broad Street Theatre, 1636 Sansom St., 215-454-9776, inisnuatheatre.org.