There were various murmurs of disquiet when the Arcola announced that it would be presenting a play based on the horrific real-life murder in February 1993 of two-year-old James Bulger by 10-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

How could it not be crass and exploitative, ran the concerned questioning? Well, like this. Niklas Rådström’s drama, which makes great use of interrogation transcripts and court documents, is stylish, thoughtful and determinedly bleached of any possible trace of hysteria.

At the heart of this case is, of course, a kernel of inexplicable evil. How could two children inflict such brutalities on another child, one too small even to be able to give his own name?
Like everyone else, Rådström has no answer to offer here, even though he carefully checks off the usual list of mitigating circumstances, including Robert’s dishevelled family situation and the astonishing 38 adult bystanders who later reported seeing the two boys with James but did nothing about it.

More dubiously, he asserts that we, too, are responsible in some way, not least for the fact that we do nothing to interrupt this re‑telling of the wretched story. I wonder what the theatre’s response would be if an audience member did get up and start protesting.

Wafty meta-theatrical excuses aside, Rådström’s text, divided into 30 short scenes and slickly translated from the Swedish by Gabriella Berggren, lets us hear from Robert, Jon, their two mothers and, at the last and devastatingly, James’s mother.

Four impressive performers — Lucy Ellinson, Sandy Grierson, Jeremy Killick and Victoria Pratt — swap roles with ease, a device that helps us to maintain some crucial distance and prevents this from becoming just another drama where bad things happen to good people.

Christopher Haydon pitches his production perfectly, making it startlingly still right from the chilling opening lines: “I don’t know what you expect from a performance about two children who kill a third.”

The bare playing area is surrounded by video screens and microphones, as if to remind us that all the technology in the world couldn’t prevent James’s life ending at the hands of two boys not old enough for secondary school.

Until 30 May. Information: 020 8503 1646,
www.arcolatheatre.com.