Theatre review: Sex, Drugs And A Cup Of Tea, Sweet Novotel

You can't throw a balled-up flyer in Edinburgh during August without the risk of hitting a troupe of young actors doing an ensemble comedy-drama based on the thrilling adventures of, well, themselves.

Sex, Drugs And A Cup Of Tea, Sweet Novotel (Venue 188) ***

Consisting of a similarly student-like group sitting around their flat, surviving on a diet of drugs, popcorn, noodles, Mario Kart and copious amounts of alcohol, playwright Emma Lynne Harley’s Sex, Drugs and a Cup of Tea is no mould-breaker in this sense.

Performed by the young actors of Edinburgh’s Pandorum Theatre Company, it even riffs on the Friends theme tune at one point.

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Yet this piece comes more recommended than most of its kind, thanks to a bunch of convincing, likeable performances and the confident way Harley’s script treads through the tricky subject matter she’s chosen to cover. Alison Brown, Rebecca Orr and Ellen Shand are three young gay women and Adam Greene is Jonno, their masturbation-obsessed flatmate and small-time drug dealer who serves as simple-minded comic relief and unwitting provocateur.

The fairly typical student banter is balanced by strong acting and convincing, punchy dialogue, and the revelation of emotional and threatened physical abuse between the flat’s female couple is delicately handled.

• Until 26 August, 8:40pm