Look! Or so the protagonist of Tim Crouch’s play often reminds us during its hour-long running time. This exclamatory word makes perfect sense given that we are in London’s newly-refurbished Whitechapel Gallery and, during the first half of the piece, surrounded by the work of the German sculptor Isa Genzken. Some of the audience are on portable chairs, but most of us stand about looking and listening. Acutely, too, because of the compelling, resonant intelligence with which this novel and quietly thrilling performance asks us to examine the complex and often insidious global links between art, health and commerce.

England is both a monologue and a two-hander. How so? Because the nameless lead character is split between Crouch himself and Hannah Ringham, a founding member of London’s Shunt Collective. With beaming smiles the pair begins by welcoming us into the space, filling their introductory remarks with various facts about the Whitechapel and Genzken. More details will follow about London culture and history, and about the person the two actors embody. He/she could be a gallery guide. There is frequent mention of a boyfriend — Dutch, but really American, or a citizen of the world — who conveniently happens to be a big-time art dealer. Crucially, and with increasing frequency, the narrator speaks about his/her heart.

There is a problem with it, you see. One that can be fixed only by a special, extremely costly and, as we discover when we’re conducted into a lecture-theatre for the play’s second act, morally suspect, deal.

Originally commissioned by the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and given its premiere at the Fruitmarket Gallery in that city, England picked up a handful of awards at the 2007 Fringe Festival. It has since toured to galleries worldwide. During its London premiere it will be performed twice nightly, Fridays to Tuesdays. The piece is well worth seeing, and not just because of its beautifully crafted script and assured performances. And nor because of its unconventional and, as the text acknowledges, antiseptic setting.

The heart, if you like, of its appeal is the provocative questions it raises about the worth of art versus the value placed on human life, and the probing skill with which is makes us think about how easy but ethically mud-spattered the marriage between privilege and exploitation can be. England isn’t just about England at all.

Box office: 020-7452 3000, to June 16

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