Twelfth Floor was Tanja Liedtke’s first and only choreographic work – she was killed by a truck, aged only 29, two years ago. It reveals a major talent whose abilities should have been allowed to develop even further.

The piece is set in an institution. It’s not a prison, so perhaps it’s a psychiatric hospital. In the large bare room we find three assorted men. Craig Barry is tall, athletic and very macho, Anton is small, bespectacled and competitive, and lumpy Julian Crotti, who creeps round the walls in his baggy clothes, writing semi-literate messages on them in chalk.

The door opens to reveal two contrasting women. Amelia McQueen, tall and austere in a pink dress, expresses her uptight character in stiff little steps and jerky arm movements. Bossy and cruel, she dumps the arresting Kristina Chan among the men.

There are funny moments, but most of the time we see their pain, as boredom and aggression take equal turns. At one point the door, which is set in a revolving section of the wall, is open, and the inmates make a run for it. By cleverly swivelling the panel containing the door, they show us what is happening on both sides, and the bright colours on the side of freedom, until McQueen, the haughty bully, has them back inside.

There are some startling scenes as sexual frustration affects them in different ways. At one point Barry and Anton simulate sex against the outline of a woman chalked on the wall. In a scene off-stage, but visible through the open door to those on the right of the auditorium of the Wycombe Swan, McQueen is violently raped by these two, while Chan has gone for the unlikely Crotti as her choice for some on-stage foreplay. The traumatised McQueen is carried back in, stiff as a pink doll, and gradually, painfully, forces herself back to her feet.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Crotti in particular makes us smile as he chalks mis-spelt words on the wall. One of them is ‘escape’ and in the final moments Kristina Chan succeeds in climbing over it. To freedom?

Chan is a superb dancer, and Liedtke has clearly made the best use of her athletic abilities, her flexibility and also her precision. There is a striking scene when McQueen is trying to subdue her; a complex battle of rigid, interlocked arms.

This may not be a perfect piece, but it was a remarkable start, showing clearly that Liedtke was a master of characterisation and the creation of tension.

Twelfth Floor is at The Oxford Playhouse tomorrow night – 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com)