In Touching the Void, the documentary film about a near-fatal attempt on Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, one of the climbers describes his job as a cross between ballet and gymnastics. Such romantic thinking in the face of insane odds helps explain the popularity of high-altitude climbing. It's about grace and athleticism in the presence of the natural drama of the landscape.
It would be good to report that in 8000m, Suspect Culture had managed to encapsulate something of this on stage. But despite the presence of climbing ropes on the back wall behind a large, open, glacial set, David Greig's play about a fictional journey to the top of Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world, remains stuck in the foothills.
There are two reasons for this: one is that Graham Eatough's production takes a literal approach to describing the trek. There is no ballet or gymnastics here, just the sight of actors grunting their way from base camp to base camp. In this respect, the climbing wall is not the asset you'd expect either: although it introduces an unusual vertical plane, it is not dramatically interesting in itself.
Only once, when Eatough shifts the perspective so that we appear to be looking down a cliff with the climbers looking up at us, does the production hint at some greater theatrical potential. The rest of the time it feels like an illustrated lecture as slide projections and voiceovers describe - but don't animate - the arduous route.
The second problem is Greig's decision to avoid drama or metaphor. This is not the first time he and Suspect Culture have done away with conventional narrative, but it is the first time they haven't found anything - be it structural games or observational detail - to put in its place. The result is a series of banal scenes telling a non-story about some people climbing a mountain. How sad to take a subject of such enormity, majesty and extremity and render it dull.
· Until February 7. Box office: 0845 330 3501.
