The RSC hasn’t had a happy month in the capital. There is, of course, the non-appearance of David Tennant’s Hamlet, and The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, the first of two pieces of new writing at Wilton’s, was poorly received. To complete a disappointing trio, Marina Carr’s two-hander hitches a ride on the back of King Lear but is unceremoniously shrugged off long before it reaches its destination.

This is the sort of tiresome piece, flapping about in the shallows of cod‑philosophy, which requires its actors to resort to random outbursts of shouting to add some heft to the words. Truisms, masquerading as profundity, are exchanged, frequently.

All of which is a pity, as Carr has spotted fruitful terrain, only to plough a peculiarly barren furrow. The subject matter will depress feminists and fans of the sufferings of Sylvia Plath, as it concerns the perpetual problem of male cultural hegemony, of men creating works of art by stifling the spirit of women.

Woman and Man — it’s a sign of over‑reaching aspirations to universality that Carr doesn’t name her characters — are both composers, her middle-aged, him elderly. She was his protégée and, we are led to think, perhaps also his lover. Yet she is actually his daughter, whom Man hates for her success. “For me to flourish, you must be quiet,” he orders.

I’d love to report that this loathsome specimen of dinosaur patriarchy gets his comeuppance but he doesn’t. The second act, set five years after the confrontation of the first, is even bleaker. Michelle Gomez and David Hargreaves trek stoically through the reams of lines in Selina Cartmell’s uninspiring production, while never once convincing us they’d know a concerto from a concertina.

The RSC’s new writing programme needs a long look. If this is the best the A-list can manage, it’s time, Hamlet-style, for the understudies.

Until January 10. Information: 0844 800 1110, www.rsc.org.uk