We're in the realm of proficient, comforting light-ent here, and fair enough, if that's what you're after. Mel and Sue are reality TV and radio stalwarts, whose enthusiastic following is thrilled to see the duo's spry, fun-poking relationship translated to the stage.
Which is just as well, because Giedroyc and Perkins are very much subjects of their own show. Here is a flashback to Sue's schooldays, under the sway of lesbian PE teachers. Here is Mel visiting Teutonic shrink Dr Freudling, to discuss her feelings about - well, Sue. The diagnosis is no surprise: "You vont to shag her." Are there any double-acts these days who leave their mutual longings be?
They are both very likable performers; their ad-libbed backchat generates bigger laughs than the script. Fun is had with Perkins's loathing of femininity, and of sincerity - which, "quite frankly, to me, is poison". The pregnant Giedroyc, faintly satirising her own girlishness, is the perfect counterpoint. And they do dressing up and funny voices with relish.
But the performance outstrips the material. When they play themselves as ageing luvvies you savour the outré characterisation, but barely notice what they're talking about. With their skits on holiday reps and Hispanic soap operas, meanwhile, Mel and Sue stray onto the scorched earth of comedy terrain: nothing grows there.
The pair are over-amplified in Pleasance One, but it's the substance of their comedy, not its volume, that should be more piercing.
· Until August 17. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
