After its usual summer lull Hampstead Downstairs starts its new season with Simon
Vinnicombe's
R and D, a short sci-fi take on grief and betrayal. Lewis (Aden
Gillett) is a writer who lost his wife a year ago, and whose moving eulogy for her
went viral; the resulting popularity has only driven him further into grief and
seclusion. His brother David (Martin Hutson) is a scientist working at some
mysterious institute, the nature of which becomes apparent when he asks Lewis to
take part, in return for a large fee, in some research and development on a
long-running project. April (Jess Murphy) is a highly-realistic humanoid robot, and
David and his team have reached the end of what they can find out in the lab. They
want Lewis to spend time alone with her and report back on how convincingly human
April can be.
