Rose Lewenstein’s Cougar is an engaging philosophical play about the ennui of human existence and the repetitive exercise of joyless living. It reveals itself through the actions of its two characters, Leila (Charlotte Randle) an investment strategist with a huckster’s sales pitch – that of reducing global carbon emissions while maximising corporate profits – and John (Mike Noble), recently fired from his job as a hotel worker, who accompanies Leila on a world-wind tour of …

‘The marriage bed’s a trough of shit fit for pigs to lie in it,’ says Quevedo (Christopher Logan), a poet in 17th Century Spain and brutal cynic of all things associated with the human condition: love, passion, hunger and the quest for domination and power. He’s speaking as a subject of the Spanish Court, which is already in decline but hanging onto its past victories as a conquering nation. And how best for a marauding …