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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lyn Gardner

Die

A scene from Die by Brand X
A scene from Die by Brand X. Photo: Murdo MacLeod

When trailer-trash teenager Deathrow Jethro kills his mum and is fried in the electric chair, he ends up in hell, facing judgment. But with the underworld rechristening itself the "Die Corporation" and facing new marketing targets, it looks like Jethro may be in luck for the first time in his life. It is up to the audience to decide whether to send him back to earth for a second chance or give the go ahead for the demons to start sucking his guts up through his sinuses.

Die is billed under the comedy programme, and this consummately trashy piece of comic-style entertainment is deliriously funny and in the worst possible taste. But it is a theatre audience - particularly one familiar with the work of Forkbeard Fantasy and Green Ginger - that would really appreciate this combination of live performers, latex masks and two-and three-dimensional puppetry. If you liked Jerry Springer, you'll just die for this, incorporating as it does personal testimonials from Hitler and Dolly Parton as well as a comeback from Franken Sinatra and his rot pack.

In fact, although it is sorely in need of a tighter script that doesn't just take you from one joke to the next, Die is more furiously inventive in its own way than Springer, and has just as much fun with popular culture and celebrity obsession. This 75 minutes of hell isn't heaven yet, but even the devil should spot its potential.

· Until August 25. Box office: 0131-556 6550.

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