Recorded Delivery are an interesting young documentary-theatre company who use a technique pioneered by US theatre-maker Anna Deavere Smith. They don't just use the words of the people they interview for their plays, but reproduce their exact speech patterns. However, those turning up at Cruising hoping for an exposé of gay sexual behaviour may be disappointed, or perhaps they won't, because this examination of the mating habits of the nation's OAPs reveals that they are right little goers, still looking for love and sex with the same desperation and fragile hearts as randy teenagers.
The surprise of this documentary-style play is that its young creators are quite so astonished to discover that the over-70s aren't all sitting at home crocheting toilet-roll covers and tending to their begonias. What century are they living in? The piece goes on to perpetuate the very myths it might seek to dispel by casting young actors as the pensioners. Some of the acting is of the same kind of grotesque parody you get when actors play toddlers. Instead of thumb suckers, we get the hunchback of Notre Dame.
One performance rises above this, however. Miranda Hart plays Maureen - a 71- year-old with the hide of a rhinoceros, the libido of an alley cat and the broken heart of a swan - with delicious deadpan restraint. It was an interview with the real-life Maureen that apparently kick-started this project, and you can see why - she's a dramatic gift. But the structure of this piece means she remains a real-life talking head-style character in search of a narrative and play.
The other curious thing is that although the technique may seek to make real people even "realer" on stage by reproducing all their peculiarities, the editing process still shapes our view of these people. Recorded Delivery controls the presentation of the "characters" to us with the glee and cruelty of the makers of Big Brother.
· Until July 1. Box office: 020-7610 4224.
