Mike seems like the perfect solution to the New Zealand police's little difficulty with their undercover cops: the lads keep getting addicted to drugs. Straight out of training college, Mike is going to do everything by the book. His is going to be a different story. It certainly is - he ends up blowing it big time.
Initially everything goes like clockwork. Mike infiltrates a bar, calls himself Sam, gets accepted in his new identity and is soon sharing the spliffs. It is not long before he has placed an order for a kilo of dope and seems to be getting close to the big boys. Only Mike is also getting out of control - the ounce of show dope has long been smoked - and he is getting very matey with his new friends, particularly the runt called Titch who is one of life's losers.
Like a lot of one-person shows on the fringe, the performance rises above the material in this comically entertaining but slight yarn of human and bureaucratic incompetence and divided loyalties and friendships. Stephen Papps gets to play not only Mike but a whole gallery of lowlife as well as a rottweiler called Satan. He does them with aplomb and makes a particularly endearing savage beast. A slick, honest little piece of storytelling that doesn't pretend to be more than it is.
7#149; Until August 25. Box office: 0131-226 2428.
