John comes in at three-and-a-half hours and races along with the speed of a superannuated snail.
But compared with the epic minimalism of Baker’s 2013 play The Flick, John is positively congested – not with people but with the dolls that occupy every shelf and table in the Gettysburg bed and breakfast where a young couple stop off for a night or two.
Elias (Tom Mothersdale) is an American Civil War enthusiast who wants to tour the site and museum of its bloodiest battle.
But his girlfriend Jenny (Anneika Rose) is suffering from period pains and stays at the B&B in the company of the eccentric owner Mertis (Marylouise Burke) whose blind friend Genevieve (June Watson) makes abrasive comments and tells tales of possession by the spirit of her ex-husband John.
Half shaggy dog story and half haunted-house mystery, it stretches the patience to the limit before springing surprises to draw you back in. A piano plays by itself.
Christmas tree lights turn themselves on and off. And everywhere the dolls stare down.
Paranoia is stitched into every element: the stories, setting, props and characters, especially Elias, a Jew who accused Jenny of anti-Semitism after her dalliance with a man called John.
Some people walked out before the end but those who stay will find their patience rewarded.
This is theatrical imagination of the highest calibre.