Set in the security office of a Newcastle shopping centre at night, The Unattended seems, for much of its length, to be a comedy of character, the three characters being Jack and Bob, ex-policemen and established security guards, and the new boy, Nat, much younger and with a questionable history of drug-taking. But there's a twist in the tail, a twist signalled almost unnoticeably at various points throughout the play.
Author Maier cleverly misdirects us into wondering about Bob's secret and the injury that took Jack out of the Force, and involves us in the minutiae of the rather boring job - the fact that the company provides plastic cups rather than mugs looms large in Jack's mind. He keeps us amused throughout with his characters' foibles
A well-crafted play, well performed.