It may be premature to talk of a satire boom in South Africa. But after the solo shows of Pieter-Dirk Uys, we now have this sharp-toothed piece by Greig Coetzee, performed by himself and James Ngcobo, which takes a sardonic look at the country's showbiz image and social tensions. Fresh from the Edinburgh fringe, it's well worth seeing.
The two actors play many roles in the style of Stones in his Pockets. But the basic premise is that Mto, a Zulu actor who's moved into the Durban suburbs, and his white colleague Kenneth are workshopping a government-backed show designed to sell South Africa.
Led by Kenneth, they fall back on stock images of orange sunsets and dancing Zulus in fur and feathers.
Even that is not enough for their sponsors who crave visions of new dawns, abundant wild life and Nelson Mandela as grandfather of the nation.
But gradually Mto gains control of the project replacing the old Ipi Tombi, happy-native approach with something closer to social reality.
In its satire on the world of official, tourist trap art the show scores an obvious bullseye: there's a particularly lethal portrait of a corporate female producer who goes to night classes in Zulu while retaining all her patronising racist hauteur. But the strength of the show lies in its grasp of backyard detail.
There's a particularly telling relationship between Mto and his suburban ex-border guard neighbour whose first instinct is to pull a gun on him before saying "welcome to Woodlands." And the sense of role reversal in the new South Africa is well caught with the discarded Kenneth telling Mto "I'm sick of apologising for being the wrong colour" without fully grasping the remark's hideous irony.
You could argue that the show replaces one kind of offically sanctioned optimism with its own personal brand: it's a bit hard to believe in the authorities buying Mto's final metaphor of horticultural growth.
But there's a biting intelligence at work and the two actors flourish under Christine Harmar-Brown's direction.
Coetzee, lean and sharp featured, switches easily from the racist neighbour picking at his calloused palms to the fluting female producer and the guiltily restless Kenneth. And Ngcobo is equally versatile as the self-realising Mto, as a nervously anxious ANC official and a Zulu maid laden with years but dreaming of her own pumpkin patch. But in the end the show's virtue is that it takes a hard nosed look at modern South Africa while suggesting that satire is itself a sign of moral progress.
· Until September 14, box office: 020-7478 0100.
