The journey begins on a coach, reminiscent of school outings. Your host is a cheesy estate-agent promoting a new property development, spinning yarns about the famous people who live in Brighton (none of whom actually live here) and waxing lyrically and incorrectly about the local architecture ("lovely Victorian buildings").
So far, so funny. But it's when the coach pulls up outside the faded grandeur of the 1938 Grand Ocean Hotel in Saltdean that this ferociously energetic performance from Frantic Assembly truly begins.
Dirty Wonderland inventively pays homage to Brighton's saucy reputation as a dirty weekend location and to the chunky, curvy pleasures of 1930s architecture. It also celebrates the elegiac, fusty quality of the disused building, and the labyrinthine qualities of a 400-bedroom hotel, built for a very different era.
Inside, the small audience follows a guest in search of his girlfriend. You peek through bedroom doors left open on dark and private worlds, follow the lost guest into claustrophobic scenarios in which everyone knows his name, and join the unhappiest happy hour. There are laughs, but these dwindle as the quest takes a menacing turn: it is the hotel's final day of business. The last few rooms are the stuff of troubling dreams, and hopes turned sour.
Faultless and mesmerising, this production is a triumphant show. As we left the hotel at the end of an extraordinary 45 minutes, one woman in the audience said: "I want to go round again." Everyone who heard her nodded in agreement.
· Until May 29. Box office: 01273 709709.
