The action and concerns of British playwright Simon Longman’s wintry rural drama Gundog might seem a long way from those of a hot and inflation-stressed Sydney.

That it pulls you in to its slow-turning wheels so completely is ample testament to the quality of his play and of this production by indie theatre stalwarts Secret House and director Anthony Skuse.

Jane Angharad in the Secret House production of Gundog. Photo © Clare Hawley/Asparay Photographics

A young man wanders on to a remote sheep farm somewhere in the northern midlands of England. He’s stopped in his tracks by the landholders, shepherd-sisters Anna (Jane Angharad) and Becky (LJ Wilson). Anna wields a shotgun. Becky’s sharp tongue is no less threatening.

Of no fixed abode and in accented English, the man (who claims his name is Guy Tree) explains that he is just passing through, looking, perhaps, to steal some scrap metal to sell.

Guy Tree (Saro Lepejian) is most likely an undocumented migrant, possibly on the lam, but after some verbal sparring, the sisters decide to offer him food and shelter in exchange for labouring on the farm. He’s no natural when it comes to...