While lots of fit young Brits have been striving to win medals in Athens, in other parts of Greece many more British youngsters will have been participating in their annual sport of drinking, shagging and throwing up. The Faliraki culture came to prominence a couple of years ago and is now the subject of this devised show from the National Youth Theatre.
Complete with a Greek chorus who comment wryly upon the action, the piece sees the arrival of a new group of lads and lasses for two weeks in the sun. The party includes 14-year-old Chardonnay and 15-year-old Carling (this show likes a bit of irony in its names) who immediately fall for each other.
But theirs is not the only story being told and the evening includes a number of other strands - some more developed than others - such as that of Sofia from Hastings who has returned to the place where her father was born.
The production has some difficulty keeping all the stories in play, but it has a keen sense of humour, is lively in its execution and benefits from being performed - often very well - by young people of the right ages. Like a lot of devised work, however, it lacks good writing. Director Paul Roseby refuses to let a good idea - a sea reflected in tinfoil trays - rest, and the scenario is plodding and predictable. What's more, clearly loath to blame the young people themselves for the tragedy that ensues, or even the parents who seem to think nothing of sending 14-year-olds on binge drinking holidays, the show ends up pointing the finger at the Greek tourist industry, which hardly seems fair.
· Until September 11. Box office: 0870 050 0511.
