Shattered by their break-up, a woman calls up her ex-lover. Pleading with the voice on the other end of the line, she sinks deeper and deeper into despair. With a touch of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, we watch the scene, and the woman herself, unravel on the other side of a glass wall.

A monologue penned by poet and film director Jean Cocteau in 1927, La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice) has inspired numerous retellings on both stage and screen. This new version is by visionary director Ivo van Hove and performed by leading actress Halina Reijn. With a raw, self-destructive performance by Reijn at its tortured heart, the intensely voyeuristic La Voix Humaine is theatre at its most brutal. Presented by Carriageworks and Sydney Festival.