Theatre review: The Smoking Boy, Greenside (Venue 231), Edinburgh

ACCORDING to the official history of Western theatre, a brave knight called Sir Kenneth Tynan (who was never actually knighted) is said to have slain the smug old dragon of drawing-room theatre in the late 1950s, giving it a critical battering from which it never fully recovered.

The Smoking Boy

Greenside (Venue 231)

Star rating: * * *

Every now and then, however, a stray example of this much-derided form will pop up – not merely a revival but a freshly-minted play – suggesting that perhaps the dragon isn’t dead, just nursing his wounds.

This drama, set in the First World War, from American writer Jenn Robins is one such anachronism, featuring all the staples of the genre: a highly strung matriarch called Margaret who suffers from “nervous disorder”; her brilliant-but-troubled-son Clarence, off to prove himself on the Western Front; and an invisible servant called Mary, whose existence is only ever signified by the offstage banging of pots and pans. (And yes, I’m pretty sure this isn’t supposed to denote the imminent arrival of John Osborne and his kitchen sink).

The production values are high and the acting hard to fault – in fact, I’ve no doubt this show would go down a storm in a provincial theatre somewhere in the south of England in about 1948. On the Fringe in 2012, though, it feels like a very lovingly crafted replica antique.

• Until today, 2:50pm.