Last year, an initiative between theatre managers and the Arts Council resulted in a groundbreaking season of touring work called This Way Up. It represented some of the best material to come out of that powerhouse of creativity, Battersea Arts Centre. Some of the companies involved, such as Filter and Gecko, seem assured of success, and the season ensured that audiences all around the country got the opportunity to see them on their way up.
This year the experiment is being repeated and, judging by this piece from Simon Farnaby, directed by Paul King, just as there are good and less good seasons in wine-making, there are good and less good seasons in theatre-making. I Am Thicker Than Water is charming enough, but so slight it is practically see-through. Apparently based on a true story, it looks at the lives of three generations of men in the Farnaby family and the things that connect grandfather to grandson. These turn out to be a heredity condition called Marfan's Syndrome and a love of gambling.
The trouble with the show, besides its wafer-thin size, is that it walks a rather dangerous line between truth and fiction. It also lacks a clear and seamless through line in the storytelling; it is at times clumsily staged; and most of all, it lacks a real emotional punch. I wanted to know not just about this family's inherited heart condition, but also much more about the condition of their hearts. One never becomes a metaphor for the other, so the yarn stays just that and never evolves into a real piece of storytelling. If you overheard this tale in a pub, you'd be delighted, but as a performance it leaves you feeling short-changed.
· At the Royal Exchange, Manchester, from Thursday until Saturday. Box office: 0161-833 9833. Then touring.
