Rather Me Than You *

Or on a park bench. Or lying face down in a ditch. How much more pleasure they would have received if writer Brandon Reed had thought to put that simple stage direction into his script, about five minutes from the start.

Sadly, he has not. Worse, the exit is on the tiny stage. Forcing the audience to be incarcerated for 70 long, long, minutes in a tiny room with five cast members in search of direction. And one limp script, in search of inspiration.

Reed is on stage as Vincent, a student who has just murdered Grant and invited various of his relatives and acquaintances round for a murder mystery evening.

Also on stage are Susanne Fraser as Grant’s mother, Juno Thomas Reed as Vincent's brother Adam, and Jamie Young as Dan. To say that they were "performing" these roles would be to stretch the definition of the word.

Slightly better are Noel James as Jamie and Paul Fraser as David, Grant’s father. Oh and Camilla Pettit makes a slight appearance in the role of Alice, Grant’s ex.

Alex McSherry’s direction of the show is so light as to imperceptible. There must be a few people reading this who have already bought tickets for this show. If you really must go - and I warn you that this is not one of those productions which is so bad it is good - rather you than me.

Run ends August 27