'I love having OCD,' Michelle Mone, now Baroness of Mayfair, told Good Morning Britain on 13th October 2015, during OCD Awareness Week. This elicited a torrent of protest from UK OCD charities and sufferers alike, furious that a condition described by the World Health Organisation as one of the ten most disabling illnesses of any kind should be so trivialised. Jeremy Allen went further: he wrote a play to illustrate how devastating an OCD victim's experience of the condition could be, and how different from Michelle Mone's celebration of her tidy drawers and colour-coded wardrobe.

Jeremy Allen's play follows the progress of Jimmy, whose obsession with the possibility of an HIV infection jeopardises both his career and his marriage. Entwined with Jimmy's struggle against OCD is his therapist's struggle against the threat of NHS cuts and closures, budgets and bureaucracy, and the prioritisation of physical over mental illness. The play is neatly constructed to include all the material, ideas, perspectives and information Jeremy Allen wants to explore, smuggling in facts and statistics wherever possible. There were some good humorous scenes in the writing and there were some moving moments; in terms of drama, it would be more powerful if the tension within Jimmy could somehow be brought to life more visibly, and if more of his experiences could be witnessed rather than described.

The Saturday Matinee Company is carving out a unique and valuable niche for itself in the Oxford theatre scene. It is like a miniature local public service, with a remit very like the BBC's 'inform, educate and entertain': its productions always provide a helpful exploration of a topical issue of public concern. Its policy of 'pay what you can afford', the timing and location of its performances and focus on current concerns enables them to attract wider audiences. I would like to see the feedback statistics, but I always have the impression that audiences include an unusual number of members of the public who are not habitual theatre-goers. Moreover, the audiences are encouraged – and keen – to engage even more fully with the issues in the lively after-show discussions with the cast, author and local experts. If any theatre company is worthy of public funding, this one is – it deserves some kind of award for community involvement and the quality of public discussion it generates!

I was fortunate enough to hear about one of SatMatCo's (the Saturday Matinee Company) previous shows, Distractingly Female, back in October last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it - a brilliantly written comedy-drama that discusses the topical issue surrounding women in the workplace without sermonising about it.

So the opportunity to see any other performances by this small, local company was always going to be snapped up. Calling themselves a 'no frills' theatre company who produce 'affordable, one-hour lunchtime drama' SatMatCo avoid fancy sets, lighting and costume altogether, allowing the audience to focus their attentions on the action and dialogue instead. In both shows that I have seen, the writing has been excellent, as have the performances.

Perfect is a show about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). While that may sound like a rather strange subject to base a play on, I would recommend that anyone go and see it for an enlightening, poignant, and sometimes comical (Gaye Poole, I'm looking at your Talk Radio DJ character) afternoon that will open your eyes to the debilitating disorder and how it affects the person it has a hold of; their relationships and their job, as well as their mental health.

The play is written by Jeremy Allen, who has suffered with OCD and come out the other side with help from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and support groups. Opening with the hilarious first scene with radio show host Annie (Gaye Poole) interviewing self-proclaimed OCD-sufferer Rowena (Baroness of Soho, played brilliantly by Jenny Johns) who just *loves* having the disorder, describing how it helps her to be so organised. In a Q&A session after the performance Allen admits that one of the reasons he wanted to write the play was to challenge this attitude to OCD; it is not an illness that we are all a little bit prone to just because we like our towels to be straight, or cans to be lined up, labels forward in the cupboard (speaking from experience…). It goes so much deeper than that kind of fastidiousness and is a real illness apparently ranked in the list of the top ten most disabling illnesses of any kind (by the World Health Organisation, no less).

I really can't recommend this show, or the company itself, highly enough. I urge everyone to take time out of their Saturday afternoon over the next couple of weeks and go and see it, for the writing, the brilliant performances and to learn a little bit more about a subject that is so widely misrepresented.