THIS week sees the last performances at Stratford’s Swan Theatre of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new-play commission, The Seven Acts of Mercy, by the controversially committed playwright Anders Lustgarten.

In-yer-face politically in a way some might find off-putting, the piece suffers, too, from shoutiness - from its principal character in particular – and (at nearly three hours) some longueurs.

Nevertheless, it is a compelling piece of work under director is Erica Whyman.

The play’s focus is the Italian painter Caravaggio, portrayed with chilling ferocity by Patrick O’Kane (pictured), who, having fled Rome and a murder rap, is in Naples completing his great work that shares the play’s title..

Brilliantly presented in Tom Piper’s design and splendidly set off by Charles Balfour’s lighting, the painting dominates the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia as the artist struggles to create art that speaks to the dispossessed.

Meanwhile, more than 400 years into the future, in the English town of Bootle, we meet a terminally ill former docker, a man of surprisingly artistic bent, who is soon to become dispossessed of his house.

Leon (Tom Georgeson) is as determined to fight the council’s regeneration scheme as he is to instil both socialism and a love of art into his gandson Mickey (TJ Jones) for whom he acts as carer.

Why this should be becomes apparent when we meet the lad’s father Lee (Gyuri Sarossy), a feckless spiv who – in one of the play’s least likely twists - is actually in league with the council.

The two elements of the plot are linked in the fact that Leon uses The Seven Acts of Mercy in his art lessons, inspiring Mickey to records acts he observes on his phone.

Tickets: rsc.org.uk

CHRISTOPHER GRAY 3/5