EVE is a 13-year-old vampire.

She has never left her room and relies on her sister Tabby for all of her information about the outside world as well as blood to survive.

Eve believes that all the characters in her Harry Potter books are real and that if she breaks her sister's rules awful things will happen.

But the teenager seems more like a victim than a monster. Locked away in squalid conditions, Eve is a dishevelled waif.

Joseph Wilde's play Cuddles offers theatre on a most intimate scale with a cast of just two using one set at Royal Exchange's Studio theatre.

Carla Langley as Eve and Rendah Heywood as Tabby make use of the limited space brilliantly.

Langley, who has recently had her TV debut on Sky's Penny Dreadful with Eva Green, is exceptional as Eve.

Immature in every way due to being in isolation and completely reliant on another, the character's child-like mannerisms are totally convincing.

But the pair's strange relationship could change when Tabby meets a man she wants to bring into their lives.

Cuddles is a play that explores what a monster really is.

It is about control, family and all consuming secrets and although it gets more disturbing as you learn the whole story it is always compelling.

- Cuddles is at Royal Exchange in Manchester until Saturday. Visit royalexchange.co.uk

DAVID MORGAN