Image of an Unknown Young Woman (Gate Theatre)

A girl in a yellow dress has been shot by police – here, or further afield; now, or in a dystopian future – and a video of the shooting has been posted on the internet. The repressive political situation is such that the young man who did the filming now fears for his safety and wants to escape to New York.

The unrest grows, as does the violence of the police tactics. Meanwhile a distraught woman, Yasmin, searches vainly for her missing mother, who just went to do some shopping and had no involvement in the protest.

A well-to-do woman, Candace, who has been abandoned by her husband, is drawn into funding an aid worker’s charity for homeless children. She then has her doubts and wonders where her money might really be going, which leads her into trying to kidnap two children from a school playground. Or so it seems. These are the narrative strands of a startling new play from Elinor Cook.

Simple images can have far-reaching consequences – from a blurry photocopy of a mother’s face, to a glossy picture of a suffering child, to a video of a shooting. An image can galvanise people into action across the nations – the comparison with the Charlie Hebdo massacre is referenced in the notion that unconnected individuals all wear yellow armbands and declare themselves to be The Girl in the Yellow Dress – but the question here is also: how real is the original image? And thus, by extension, how real is our anger? Rage and protest are an everyday part of our lives, but – with the ubiquity of social media and instant imaging – are we not losing the ability genuinely to be shocked, genuinely to care?

This is all presented on a neck-straining catwalk setting, but the discomfort of viewing actors sometimes half a tennis court apart is offset by the clever use of trapdoors in the catwalk and a coup de théâtre for the final scene that you don't see coming.

The acting is flawless. An impassioned piece of ensemble work. Of particular note are Susan Brown as Candace and Eileen Walsh as Yasmin.

Directed by Christopher Haydon with an adrenalin rush of raw energy, the play barely seems to draw breath from the opening salvo of choral voices to its ironic conclusion. The final image suggests that a baying mob – whether of protest or of revenge – can be satisfied with an image as long as it appears to be what they are waiting to see.

Disturbing. But however gripping the performances, one feels bombarded by messages rather than emotionally engaged. The dystopian future is with us.

Image of an Unknown Young Woman runs at the Gate Theatre until 27 June