We may be increasingly further away from the World Wars, but madness is timeless. And not everyone sees returned soldiers as heroes.

Shellshocked starts with the returned serviceman, 19-year-old Wesley (Jack Stokes), arriving at the artist Mr Lupine’s (Lee Bainbridge) seeking a job to support his family (his mum and three sisters) following the death of his father.

It immediately becomes clear that Lupine has an agenda towards Wesley, but he guards his intentions. For a couple of moments (an overly-long hug, an uninvited shoulder massage, a suggestion that Wesley should strip, payment of £10 for a day’s work), it has the potential to go in a queer direction.

But the interplay between the characters in a sharp script by Philip Stokes continues to hint at the underlying tension over the show’s 70-minute run time. The rapid-cycling formal/informal, sit/stand, psychological drama/dark comedy moments have you cringing on Wesley’s behalf and wanting Lupine to reveal his intentions.

Long before Lupine reveals his motives, it becomes clear that this is a predatory relationship with a dark intent. And it stems from Lupine’s malignant envy.

But the war-experienced Wesley will only obey Lupine up to a point. He will stand up for himself. How far he’ll need to go to do so drives the play towards a climax that is “explosive” literally and figuratively.

Both actors deliver performances that will leave you reflecting on the play’s themes long after it’s finished. Even though Bainbridge plays the less-likeable character, he delivers the bulk of the comedic moments.

It’s onto the younger Stokes’s shoulders that falls the weightier task, to carry the weight of what Wesley experienced during the War, without putting that into words.

To this end, Stokes is the master of the pause. A number of times, he stands in silence. To do this takes courage as it’s much easier to fill silences with words. It’s entirely consistent for someone who has survived war to prefer silence to words.

The dark lighting brings out the richness of the detailed set and the dark themes. The lighting and the set design are a step above what you’d expect from a Fringe show, where often the focus is on the performers rather than the other elements. The Arch at Holden Street Theatres is the perfect-sized venue for this intimate show.

On every level, Shellshocked is worthy of its 5-star reviews in the UK and the status the British Library has given it as a culturally important play of the 21st century. War can perhaps be regarded as a form of madness, but as Shellshockedshows, madness has a life outside of war.