Beware of shows that come with an exclamation mark. They are either advertising their shock value or compensating for some inbuilt deficiency. While Nadim Sawalha's 60-minute monologue about Mohammed Al Fayed's battle for a British passport is intermittently funny, it neither tells you much about the supposed exclusiveness of the British Establishment nor about the plight of immigrants in general.
Sawalha's show rests on two jokes, to which the law of diminishing returns applies. One depends on Al Fayed's attempt to integrate himself into British life, which yields one good line when he claims: "Last night I was having a pint with the Archbishop of Canterbury." By the time he is buttonholing the Duke of Edinburgh, however, the joke has worn thin. The other running gag concerns Al Fayed's misuse of the English language, on the lines of "That's the way the cuckoo crumbles." But there is something deeply condescending about this harping on his gaffes.
As a performer, Sawalha is beguiling. Clad in a natty grey suit, he captures Al Fayed's mix of bombast and bonhomie, and produces a few wry chuckles when he announces that Fulham football club is "a great team of British players". But he tells us little of Al Fayed's financial or personal background. And, by focusing exclusively on the problems of a famous would-be Brit, Kristine Landon-Smith's Tamasha Theatre production ignores the more serious condition of thousands of anonymous immigrants.
As a post-prandial cabaret turn, the show is mildly diverting. But its dependence on the funny-foreigner joke disconcertingly evokes memories of Punch in its pre-Al Fayed, Edwardian days.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
