Theatre review: Ruthlessness, C ECA (Venue 50), Edinburgh

THIS well set-up piece of straightforward Guy Ritchie-movie-indebted London gangster drama goes nowhere quite fun, thrilling or original enough for it to live up to its big screen dreams, good as some of the acting and jokes might be.

By MALCOLM JACK

Published 20th Aug 2012, 15:07 BST

Ruthlessness

C ECA (Venue 50)

Star rating: * *

In 1997, against a backdrop of New Labour and Britpop, a young sociopathic mobster inherits his father’s crime empire and ruthlessly sets about rigging a boxing match, swindling an MP into supporting his super casino ambitions, and squeezing an old debt out of two petty crooks. Cue a familiar pattern of deal-making, double-crossing and death with an unexpected, albeit hurriedly inane, outcome.

• Until 27 August. Today 1:30pm.