Theatre review: This Way Up, C (Venue 34), Edinburgh

A SUPERIOR piece of entertainment, Antler Theatre’s off-the-wall romcom has all the resonances of an episode of Friends.

This Way Up

C (Venue 34)

Star rating: * * *

Sadly not subtitled The One With All the Cardboard Boxes, its lead character is Alex, a freshly graduated art student who’s just taken a job at the Roof Proof call centre, where she gets to decorate her cubicle with “one A5 picture” if she really wants to. When her new workmate Mark is forced to move into her flat as a favour, romantic frisson ensues.

It’s an hour of gentle eccentricity and well-worked wackiness, with Alex’s best friend Meg somewhat obscurely introducing herself to each new person under a different identity and Mark’s friend Bensy proving to be impressively, endearingly idiotic, so much so that he falls for Meg under more than one alias. Richard Perryman proves to be the stand-out comedy actor here, while Daniela Pasquini, Nasi Voutsas and Louise Trigg are all likable and skilled young performers.

An air of quality pervades the whole work, in fact, from the quirky indie music interludes to the impressive set design of a stack of interchangeable cardboard boxes. Like Friends, though, the pristine surface disguises not a lot of deeper purpose.

• Until 27 August. Tomorrow 2:40pm.