In 1925 Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett set off to the Amazon jungle with his elder son Jack, apparently in search of a lost city that he believed held the secret of the origins of civilisation. TE Lawrence had wanted to go along, but was turned down in favour of Jack, as was the younger Fawcett son, Brian. Just as well, for the explorers never returned, although search parties were sent out: more than 100 people lost their lives looking for the lost Fawcetts.
Maybe they just didn't want to be found. Over the years, the mystery has caught the popular imagination; the internet contains many theories about what may have happened. Now, claiming access to secret family papers, jealously guarded by Brian, writer and director Misha Williams offers a new version. Williams suggests that the papers point to deliberate concealment on the part of Fawcett, whose "great scheme" included the founding of a spiritual colony.
The story is intriguing enough, but Williams only succeeds in making it seem dull and rather silly in an inept evening in which 37 short scenes are crammed into two hours. Along the way there is much mystic poppycock and a strong moral message that following your dreams can be pretty selfish when it blights the lives of those left behind. This is a story of madness, and you can't help feeling that Williams has been bewitched away from the more dramatically rewarding themes of sibling rivalry and lack of parental approval that drove the younger Fawcett son, Brian, to behave so strangely.
· Until May 1. Box office: 020-7936 3456.
