After a hesitant start with The Slab Boys, the Traverse company has got into gear for the second part of John Byrne's trilogy and come up with a cracking comedy with a seriously vicious underbelly.
Set at the staff Christmas dance a few hours after the carpet-factory antics of the first instalment, Cuttin' a Rug takes us on a stags-and-hens romp through the rituals of 1950s courtship. It begins with a blast of Heartbreak Hotel, builds the tension in the pre-dance toilets, then catapults itself into the main event: a superbly choreographed procession of partners being picked up, dumped, exchanged and ignored with hilarious heartlessness.
In Byrne's world, the men are either clueless or too sharp for their own good. The women, meanwhile, are cynical, worldly wise and effortlessly in control. None of them speaks the same language, which means the cruel comedy of the playwright's working-class Paisley patois is made even more funny by the gulf of misunderstanding.
Director Philip Howard has drummed up a furious pace for this production. Shrugging off their earlier timidity his cast have started to show their real worth with big, brutal performances.
They look as if they are enjoying themselves, too, not least in the dance routine Howard has inserted at the end of act one - a kind of Busby Berkeley bathroom scene that captures the play's effervescent spirit. But they never descend into whimsy: the startling anger of Una McLean's Sadie, and the cruel nihilism of Paul Thomas Hickey's Phil McCann make sure of that.
· Until January 24. Box office: 0131-228 1404.
