There appears to be a theme emerging. Former Perrier award winner Will Adamsdale's recent success The Receipt concerned Wiley, a fool (or hero) for our times; a man baffled by the mechanisms and loneliness of 21st-century city life who decides to step off the merry-go-round. Now, after appearing in Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio in Edinburgh, Adamsdale pops up in another offering from the US monologuist which takes the form of the confessions of an oddball loner living on the fringes of New York. Notes from Underground is about a man cut off from humanity, cut off from himself and ultimately cut off from reality. He just can't make the connections.
Unfortunately there was hardly a moment during this long 90 minutes when I didn't wish that I was watching The Receipt, a far more multi-layered piece of theatre. Notes from Underground ploughs a much furrowed field - over recent years the stage has seen enough one-man shows about loners, whose apparent ordinariness hides more chilling intent. I have learned to fear the moment the character casually mentions that they've been stocking up on kitchen implements as much as I fear the mention of a gun in Ibsen.
It's not just over-familiarity that breeds contempt. Bogosian has spent more than 20 years exploring the decaying culture of modern America through the voices of its citizens, but this effort is curiously lacking in his trademark rage and energy. The rant often bludgeons you into submission, but quiet writing has to be really exceptional if it is going to be heard.
Like his character, Bogosian's writing here is rather ordinary, and although Adamsdale gives an assured performance suggesting something both bloodied and blind behind the bland exterior, the piece never makes a case for being on the stage rather than the page.
· Until November 4. Box office: 0870 060 6632.
