If it hadn't been for the Southwell shooting, most people would consider the premise for this play to be too silly for words. A four year old's drawing, when looked at in a particular way (and we never actually see the drawing) is interpreted by the security services to be a plan for an attack on the British people so the child's father is grabbed, tied up and thrown into a cell where he is interrogated by two operatives, Samedi and Castogan.
The Infant is a savage satire on the paranoia engendered by the war on terror and the way in which even the most ordinary of people, like Cooper and Lilly, the child's parents, can be drawn in to believing the worst of even those who are closest to them, particularly when forced into the position of defending themselves against a preposterous accusation.
It is very funny but also frightening. The characters are well drawn, in particular the two interrogators, who have jusy enough of the comic about them to drive the story forward but also sufficient reality to give an air of menace.