Blue/Orange. Written by: Joe Penhall. Directed by: Jim Millan. Where/When:Neptune's studio theatre to March 14.

Powered by three fabulous performances by Nigel Bennett, Kevin Hanchard and Shaun Smyth, Blue/Orange crackles with energy and intelligence while probingsome very edgy subject matter.

The play covers modern psychiatric practice, uncomfortably wrapped up with ideas about career advancement and race, which provide some marvelous dramatic opportunities.

Joe Penhall's play is brilliantly written. It unfolds around three interviews between a doctor, his mentor (both white) and an African-British patient who is on the verge of being released back into society after a 28-day stay in a London mental ward.

The young doctor has reservations: his mentor -- upholding the fashionable post-One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest opinions about the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill -- wants him released and says there are no beds available anyways. The patient himself is just crazy enough to not know what he wants or needs.

Penhall fills out each character so that they are fully human creations, rather than walking arguments. As the cautious-but-idealistic doctor, Smyth manipulates a curious naive streak that grows to catastrophic proportions.

As the senior official, Bennett slickly plays all the angles of the conflict until it comes down to the ugly matter of pulling rank. And Hanchard's protrayal of Christopher, the unpredictable patient, is deftly un-romanticized; he's no holy fool or lost prophet -- to the point where the audience itself is unsure of his readiness to rejoin society.

Jim Millan's direction rockets the play along. While he allows Bennett the room to strut confidently around the stark single set, to develop a sense of command, he also gives the physically smaller Smyth enough space to dig in and fight for his principles.

D'Arcy Poultney's design and costumes are nicely understated -- with three large abstract paintings hanging over the proceedings to suggest the collision of practical and theoretical -- and Lesley Wilkinson's lighting manages to humanize the grim institutional nature of Britain's run-down and overextended national health service.