This comedy is American satire at its sick, twisted best. It is set in a hospital, where the US president has been taken after an assassination attempt. Watching it is like vomiting acid in the wind and finding it comes back to hit you full in the face.
Penned by Brian Parks, whose Americana Absurdum was one of the great pleasures of the fringe two years ago, the play has all his hallmarks: a quick-draw wit that is dry as paint stripper, and a notion that nothing is sacred - not Canada, or black people, or even the medical profession. One feels there is still hope for the most powerful nation on earth when it can laugh at itself so loudly. The play is hard, lethal and unforgiving; British theatre satire is limp by comparison.
Goner is performed in a controlled frenzy of firework acting by a brilliantly sharp cast. My only complaint is that there is not enough of it.
· Until August 26. Box office: 0131-226 2428.
