Perhaps more than any other medium, theatre has the ability to show us the extraordinary in the ordinary, and expand the tiniest of moments into a universe. Conversely, it can make the small seem even smaller. Regrettably, that is the case with the latest show from Frantic Assembly, a company that I have admired enormously over the years for the way it has brought an intense intimacy to the stage through its multilayered approach, which includes text, visuals, movement and music. Frantic Assembly has always known you can say as much with a gesture as with a page of script.
There is a touch of the voyeuristic about Peepshow, in that it allows you to take a look into four flats in a tower block occupied by young people. But what you see is just not very interesting, or you feel that you've seen it all before - mostly in other Frantic shows. There is the couple whose relationship is in crisis because her insecurities and jealousies make her drink too much; the boasting, possessive boyfriend whose lover wants to move on; the two girls moving in together, one of whom has an unacknowledged crush on the other, and the loner whose lover has gone travelling and spends the long evenings learning Lithuanian. One evening their stories entwine via a borrowed corkscrew.
They may entwine, but they never grab. This is largely the failing of a vapid script that lacks both strong characterisations and poetry. But there are other, more surprising disappointments, from the clumsy set to the over-obvious physical work. The show lacks the company's trademark sense of heightened intimacy, which is provided only in the clever use of songs by the band Lamb. Oh, by the way, it's a musical.
· Until November 23. Box office: 020-8741 2311.
