Thriller inspired by backyard horror story DUNCAN Graham's new Australian play Dreams in White is a taut thriller inspired by the real life disappearance of clean-cut, multi-millionaire Melbourne businessman Herman Rockefeller in 2010, whose body was found in the suburban backyard of a couple he met through the swingers scene. The 80-minute drama moves back and forth in time, jumping between scenes leading up to the central event and its aftermath. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, each scene adding another piece of information until you get the full picture. However, even without knowing the details of the Rockefeller case, you suspect what has happened fairly early in the piece. The fact that the play keeps you so intrigued is due in no small part to the superb performances. Michael Devine (Andrew McFarlane) is a successful, charming, Sydney property developer. Happily married for 20 years, his teenage daughter Amy (Sara West) is proving a bit difficult at the moment but though she pushes and baits him, he remains a protective, loving father. However, to Melbourne suburban battlers Paula (Mandy McElhinney) and Gary (Steve Rodgers), Michael is the aggressive Ray Wimple who they met through a swingers" magazine but are now wish they hadn't. Graham's writing is sharp and smart. In asking how well we know anyone, even those closest to us, he is tapping into a question that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Internet age where identity is up for grabs. However, he isn't interested in resolutions or answers. We never learn why Michael behaves as he does, how he feels about hoodwinking his wife or whether he leaves the swingers magazine in his office hoping she'll find it. Similarly, his daughter's relationship with a man she met online is left hanging. It adds to the air of mystery Graham is clearly trying to create in a play about secrets, lies and double lives but it means that the story feels a bit thin and the characters under-developed. We want to know more. Tanya Goldberg directs a wonderfully slick, fluid production on Teresa Negroponte's grey set with sliding glass door, which provides a fittingly anonymous backdrop. Kelly Ryall's score and Hartley T A Kemp's lighting add to the unsettling atmosphere. Several of the cast double in different roles. Lucy Bell plays Michael's shocked, grieving wife Anne as well as Julia, an unhappily married woman who is inspecting one of Michael's properties. McElhinney is the rough-as guts Paula and also a psychiatrist helping Anne cope with the discovery of her husband's sordid, secret life. Rodgers is Julia's husband David as well as Gary ¬both of them unemployed, though worlds removed socially. He also plays a detective. Initially it's a bit confusing as they slide between characters without time to change costume but such is the quality of the acting that in next to no time we know exactly who each of them are. McFarlane is excellent as the suave Michael, managing to convince us that the two wildly different sides of his character could be the same man. It's an outstanding performance, but the entire cast excels. The play itself could be a bit meatier. Nonetheless, it's still intriguing and with such a terrific production it's definitely worth a look. SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross until March 23 3.5 stars